"The work ethos is different as well, europeans tend to regard extreme outliers in wealth as extreme outliers, less as role models.

What does that have to do with work ethos? Do you think there is a strong correlation between working hard and the dream of becoming extremely wealthy? Of the four options, (born poor/rich, working hard/slacking) I agree that (born poor & slacking) is highly unlikely to make you wealthy, but that is about it.

The exaggerated version of my view on workers rights in Europe/the EU (1), compared to the US, is that, in Europe, the class struggle between the Proletariat and the Bourgeoisie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletariat#Usage_in_Marxist_th...) has led to a distribution of power that gives more power to the proletariat.

That is why, for example, consumer laws are stronger in the EU, and that workers have more rights, enforced by the EU, more or less acting for all workers.

In the USA, "workers" and "owners" are more each others enemies than collaborators for a common cause (for an extreme example, see http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f...), and workers work hard for two reasons: fear of their employers and the _dream_ of becoming extremely wealthy.

In the EU, on the other hand, bosses respect their employees and give them room for self-development. That makes them work hard (did I say this was the exaggerated version?).

I also thinks similar logic applies to medical insurance and the prison systems in the EU and the USA, but that may be a bit far sought.

Also, some loose remarks on things stated in the article:

- AFAIK, you can start your startup in a garage all you want. Rules about workplace conditions only apply to employees. As long as you don't have employees, you can work wherever and however you want.

- Similarly, you can work as long as you want for your own company.

- Many countries have limited liability companies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability_company) that give you easy protection against losing your house in case your company goes bankrupt. The difficulty of starting one varies by country (Google showed me ads claiming a price of about €400–, or about €3000,– if you want one within four hours for Dutch ones)

- When I learned about it earlier this year, I was surprised that Germans have to have a doctor's approval to report sick. That sounds like bureaucratic waste to me. In the Netherlands, you just report sick.

(1) I know the two are different, but the EU 'exports' its rules outside the EU, too. For example, Switzerland is not in the EU, but it follows many EU directives because it wants to trade easily with its neighbors and even pays towards the EU budget (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland–European_Union_rela...); Norway is not in the EU, but it is in the Schengen zone of 'no passport check on travel'. To get there, it has to comply with several EU rules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway–European_Union_relations)

On the other hand, there are so many degrees of 'in the EU' that mere mortals cannot keep track of them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#Member_states: 27 members, one almost member, 5 candidates, 4 potential candidates, one potential candidate which is not recognized as an independent country by all, some EFTA countries not in the EU, micro states that have the euro, but are not in the EU, overseas areas of European countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territorie...). Nevertheless, I'll treat "Europe" and "the EU" as synonyms. That should do for this rant.