The biggest problem is that there is no "dumb money" floating around - or at least not nearly in the same amount as in the US. Where there isn't any venture capital available if you're not copying a US-proven business model (this is the modus operandi of Rocket Internet), there cannot be the creation of SV-style startups.
What Europe does have however (and especially Germany) is a healthy "Mittelstand" - small-ish companies that don't have exponential growth figures but nevertheless are world-leading in their respective niche.
For those complaining about "muh the taxes / wage costs are so yuge!!!", compare which benefits these taxes provide and what the US simply does not have (think of a proper social security and healthcare system or public transportation, for example).
Yeah, if government regulations loosened to allow easier access to riskier investments by inexperienced investors or predatory VCs, there would be a lot more stock-based renumeration. Who cares about paying tax on the income generated by the difference between strike & fair market value if the grant also comes with a cash bonus exactly equal to the tax burden (and its income tax)?
EU banks have massive IT organisations and budgets so can afford to pay through the nose for contractor day rates. That's the ticket for frontline grunt wealth, and also the source of a lot of the risk-adverse 'bankist' mindset in a lot of experienced tech workers.
> Yeah, if government regulations loosened to allow easier access to riskier investments by inexperienced investors or predatory VCs, there would be a lot more stock-based renumeration.
No, if government regulations were loosened even more there would be exactly one thing and that is even more people ripped off by unscrupulous or outright criminal bankers. There's a reason why such terms as "accredited investor" exist.
> EU banks have massive IT organisations and budgets so can afford to pay through the nose for contractor day rates.
The only reason their budgets are so massive is that they are historically locked in mainframes and code untouched since the 70s, and people who (still) do COBOL etc. can command these high rates. Fixing up the cruft would require investments so high that the day rates for contractors pale and many banks attempting to do IT overhauls have paid billions to inevitably fail.
Banking IT is one hell of a shitfest, which I wouldn't dare to touch with a ten feet pole alone from a technological POV - the fact that IT and their needs are generally laughed at over the industry only confirms my position. Fintechs are different, but have their own issues - funding, data protection, questionable ethical decisions, reactions to security issues...
What Europe does have however (and especially Germany) is a healthy "Mittelstand" - small-ish companies that don't have exponential growth figures but nevertheless are world-leading in their respective niche.
For those complaining about "muh the taxes / wage costs are so yuge!!!", compare which benefits these taxes provide and what the US simply does not have (think of a proper social security and healthcare system or public transportation, for example).