Assuming you're serious, as a European, I applaud your willingness to hurt yourself so we can have transistors and also have 40 days off each year.

US inventiveness peaked in the 50s and 60s, when corporate taxes were much higher, education, housing and healthcare were far cheaper, wealth was more evenly distributed, and government investment in infrastructure and R&D was more about delivery than corporate/academic grift.

Perhaps there's a reason it has declined since.

> healthcare were far cheaper

In the 60s people would often die from ailments that are now solved with routine outpatient procedures.

Cars were cheaper too but it turns out all that emissions and safety equipment costs money.

> wealth was more evenly distributed,

Maybe…of course, those were also decades where companies would comp executives with cars, apartments, vacation homes, &c. Plus other perks like expensing ‘business meetings’ at strip clubs.

100% disagree.

SmartPhones, Cloud, AI.

Just three things that happened in the past 20 years and were brought to the world by US companies.

Another example: the first commercial cell phone network was in Chicago in 1983, brought to us by AT&T and Motorola. What could be more impactful to modern existence than that?

Also post war Europe had to rebuild, the US didn't - and lots of scientists headed west.

> US inventiveness peaked in the 50s and 60s

How does one even measure that? And who would even try and claim that?

> when corporate taxes were much higher

The corporate tax rates in the 70s and 80s were just as high as they were in the 50s and 60s [0]. And the capital gains taxes were actually lower during the 50s and 60s than they were in the 70s and 80s. Why did inventiveness stop if the higher tax rates were helpful?

   1952-1963 Over $25,000 52%
   1975-1978 Over $50,000 48% ($50k in 1978 is ~$21k in 1952)

So the tax rate was ever so slightly lower, but kicked in sooner, once you compare apples to apples.

But surely Reagan did some bad things, right?

   The maximum tax rate on capital gains was capped at 34 percent for 1987
   From April 1, 1954, through Calendar Year 1969, the maximum tax rate on capital gains was 25 percent.

> government investment in infrastructure and R&D was more about delivery than corporate/academic grift

Grift in the 50s and 60s was pervasive and everywhere. Eisenhower was warning about the Military Industrial Complex in 1961.

[0] https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/historical-corpor...

The more innovative companies in the US tend to have generous vacation policies.

I think what the article is really about the rest of the country. In Europe, even service industry people get 4-6 weeks off per year. In the US service industry that is unheard of.

I work in the US service industry (retail), and until recently I didn't have sick time at all. The only reason I do now is because I'm a part of a union (very rare for retail workers) and they argued for sick time. And it's accrued sick time at that.

(This is all me agreeing with you, btw.)

I guess it depends on what your personal priorities are. I’d say most Europeans prioritize their families, friends and life _away from work_ over work, but maybe you don’t. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Countries invent nothing, people do. And I bet those who invented transistors and the internet had plenty of days off.

BTW if work would be a privilege, you would have to pay to do it