I find the "American model" and the "European model" dichotomy very interesting.<p>American model: individually centered, "pay for what you want", development is driven by small companies and individual decisions (most of the time). "Works for me"<p>European model: centered on the community, social support, development by committee/government/consensus. Slow but directed improvements<p>Germany <i>could not</i> have produced Facebook. But they have a great train network. France puts satellites on orbit and does the TGV.<p>In the US you have millionaires came out of "nothing" (of course, from nice universities, nice contacts, etc), people jumping at opportunities, while in Europe this would take 2 meetings, 3 viability studies and 4 months.<p>So, while I'm more towards in favour of the European model someone has to ask themselves what are they missing. Yes, they have a very nice and educated workforce that will be ready to work and be very productive at a big company where they will work hard, sure, but will come out with the least amount of new ideas (that's not their job), and will do the things most likely to be accepted by the majority.