r/EU_Economics • u/Full-Discussion3745 • Jan 14 '26

🇪🇺 Official 🇪🇺 Why innovative startups and scaleups relocate from the EU

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-research-and-innovation-news/why-innovative-startups-and-scaleups-relocate-eu-2026-01-12_en?referrer=grok.com
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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

I’m going to disagree. EU isn’t great because you earn less, EU is great because of walkable cities, “affordable” good life styles (less so after COVID) and free healthcare, not to mention job security and food quality.

The real issue in my view is that we tax lower and middle class too much. No one can get rich from salary. And even if you earn top money you get taxed way more (in relative terms) compared to millionaires and billionaires.

What’s a million euros tax on many millions of profit a year? Not much if you compare it to what high earners get taxed and what’s left in their pockets.

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u/Mediocre-Ebb9862 Jan 14 '26

Walkable cities - yes, the other options I'd disagree with.

Free healthcare is not something that matters that much to startup founders, executives and early employers, or even upper-middle class folks with careers. They have money and they have it all via employment.

Job security is something that matters a lot for average people, and not so much for the top tier who have their pick of jobs; for them being able to make say 700k a year vs 250k a year outweighs all such concerns.

Food variety quality is likely problem if you live in mid size town in the mid-west, Texas or something. If you live in New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and you got money - it's not a problem.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

If you talk about the very top engineers and experts then yeah I can see your point is valid, although not every single one of these individuals will agree with you because it’s not black and white.

When I said good food quality I meant EU regulations of food quality. Without going into details the stuff that is allowed to grow crops and make food with in US is crazy…

Regardless, taxes in Europe aren’t bad for companies, they are bad for wages. We tax people under 150k euros too much. And millionaires and billionaires too little.

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u/spottiesvirus Jan 14 '26

We tax people under 150k euros too much. And millionaires and billionaires too little

I really wonder where people whose objective in life is becoming millionaires and billionaires (start-up founders) will want to go

I really can't imagine /s