As The UK Actively Seeks To Lure Entrepreneurs, Why Does The US Still Make It So Difficult?

from the innovation-going-elsewhere dept

Thu, Jan 14th 2010 4:28pm — Mike Masnick

Reuters has a short article detailing how the UK has been successful in luring a growing number of foreign entrepreneurs to open up shop (or even move their companies to the UK). While there are still plenty of foreign entrepreneurs starting or moving companies to the US, it's got little to do with the US government -- which often makes it quite difficult for foreign entrepreneurs to relocate here. While, thanks in large part to Brad Feld's activism, there is finally some movement on a startup visa concept, the US government still takes a rather hostile view towards foreign entrepreneurs and foreign startups. With other countries actively courting and welcoming them -- and backing it up with some infrastructural changes, this should be seen as a serious problem for US innovation. Of course there's a lot more to this issue, and there are certainly institutional reasons why the US has long had a strong startup culture, but we shouldn't merely assume that we can just rest on our laurels, especially as others are ramping up their efforts to attract hot startups.

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Filed Under: entrepreneurship, immigration, innovation, uk, us

23 Comments

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IndianGod, 14 Jan 2010 @ 6:02pm

Stupid americans
Idiot americans your to stupid to innovate and be entrepreners. All tech leaders are created by India and others that come to here now. Americans economy is dead because you are to lazy and dumb. When your borders are open we will buy all your empty houses and save you. You will be so grateful to be our servents!
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- Doh, 14 Jan 2010 @ 6:20pm
  
  Re: Stupid americans
  Come back after you learn English and tell me again how stupid I am.
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  - Chargone (profile), 15 Jan 2010 @ 12:37am
    
    Re: Re: Stupid americans
    To be fair, written English does take at least twice as long to learn as any other European language, with graduating highschool students not yet having attained what would be considered basic literacy in any other language.
    
    American English is very slightly less so, mind you, due to some spelling changes.
    
    Who's point that actually supports/detracts from, i really don't know.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 15 Jan 2010 @ 4:35am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Stupid americans
      While I think IndianGod is clearly an idiot, I also don't agree with what you said.
      
      I am from Europe (but not British) and upon finishing school I was fluent in four languages, one of them English.
      
      English is considered by most, including myself, one of the easiest languages to learn.
      
      Those who speak it as a native language don't bother to learn anything else because anywhere they go there will be someone who speaks their language.
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      - Rafa Minu, 20 Jan 2010 @ 11:40am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Stupid americans
        "upon finishing school I was fluent in four languages"
        Then you must be Swiss.
        The US should have Spanish recognized as official language:
        spanish-vs-english
        
        That will make people smarter, no pun intended:
        speaking-at-least-two-tongues-impedes-brain-degeneration
        
        I also agree that IndianGod must be an idiot (or someone faking it for the sake of enlivening the thread)
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Chuck (profile), 14 Jan 2010 @ 6:21pm

Simple example: ATI
The only people keeping nVidia from having a monopoly in the graphics card field: ATI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI#History
In 1985, ATI was founded as Array Technologies Incorporated by Lee Ka Lau[1], Benny Lau and Kwok Yuen Ho.

Enough said.
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- Dementia (profile), 15 Jan 2010 @ 5:54am
  
  Re: Simple example: ATI
  Just keep in mind that ATI is now owned by AMD.
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transmaster (profile), 14 Jan 2010 @ 7:42pm

Stupid Fed's
If it were left up to the most states, Except Tax 'em until they bleed states like California, New York, Michigan, and New Jersey it would be full speed ahead. But we have restrictions put on us by the likes of Pelosi, Harry Reid, protectionist Unions, Department of Commerce, EPA, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Those great Indian engineers want to come to the States, and Companies want to hire them but they can't instead the Democrats stone wall the whole issue so we have a steady stream of hard working illegal's who because of all of the above are open for exploitation by both employers and scumbag lawyers who make a living off of this whole issue.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 14 Jan 2010 @ 10:04pm
  
  Re: Stupid Fed's
  If it were left up to the most states, Except Tax 'em until they bleed states like California, New York, Michigan, and New Jersey it would be full speed ahead. But we have restrictions put on us by the likes of Pelosi, Harry Reid, protectionist Unions, Department of Commerce, EPA, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Those great Indian engineers want to come to the States, and Companies want to hire them but they can't instead the Democrats stone wall the whole issue so we have a steady stream of hard working illegal's who because of all of the above are open for exploitation by both employers and scumbag lawyers who make a living off of this whole issue.
  
  I would argue that it is both the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats do it because of their connection with unions -- but do you not remember just recently that it was the *Republicans* that killed immigration reform.
  
  Neither party is any good on immigration issues. Both are protectionist.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Jan 2010 @ 5:56pm
    
    Re: Re: Stupid Fed's
    You are absolutely right I should have included Republicans, I implied it in my comment about exploitation. When I worked in the construction industry I worked with illegal's and I am here to tell you they where hard working people you could depend on. All they where trying to do is feed their families. They were always looking over their shoulder for the INS. If the INS came around we hid them out in our cars.
    There should be a way for such people to get work in the States, in the mean time I protect my friends.
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transmaster (profile), 14 Jan 2010 @ 7:45pm

Stupid Fed's
If it were left up to the most states, Except Tax 'em until they bleed states like California, New York, Michigan, and New Jersey it would be full speed ahead. But we have restrictions put on us by the likes of Pelosi, Harry Reid, protectionist Unions, Department of Commerce, EPA, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Those great Indian engineers want to come to the States, and Companies want to hire them but they can't instead the Democrats stone wall the whole issue so we have a steady stream of hard working illegal's who because of all of the above are open for exploitation by both employers and scumbag lawyers who make a living off of this whole issue.
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transmaster (profile), 14 Jan 2010 @ 8:41pm

Sorry about the double posting I had some sort of hang-up in my network, grrrrr
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Allen, 14 Jan 2010 @ 9:00pm

The US government is just reflecting their perception of the electorate's view and for the most part the US electorate (when they think about it at all) see imported talent as a threat rather than an opportunity.
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- Enrico Suarve, 15 Jan 2010 @ 1:43am
  
  Re:
  The next truly great country will be the first to realise that Joe Six Pack is a moron, and not to base all their policies on scoring cheap points in bar room discussions.
  
  I hold out little hope.
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Jeroenw, 15 Jan 2010 @ 2:43am

In economically challenging times protectionism is an easy way to score points with the uneducated masses. Since that's always been appealing to the american politicians it doesn't surprise me.

Measures like this, together with special interest group lobbying and a culture that encourages insane lawsuits will be the downfall of the USA.
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cc, 15 Jan 2010 @ 4:41am

Microsoft has gone on record several times saying the US's visa policies are killing it.
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- Anonymous Coward, 15 Jan 2010 @ 5:16am
  
  Re:
  I thought that it was the Microsoft policies that were killing Microsoft
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Concerned Citizen, 16 Jan 2010 @ 9:32pm

Wake up America
America the land of opportunity ? more like …

America the land of opportunity to get screwed.

The US is the most Hippocratic democracy in the world.

It was basically stolen from the American Indians.

It was primarily built by slave and immigrant labor.

Ingenuity and common sense is dead, welfare and joblessness on

the rise, corruption and greed is escalating and laws are absurd.

Out of the 535 members of the United States Congress:

36 have been accused of spousal abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

19 have been accused of writing bad checks

117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 have done time for assault

71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

8 have been arrested for shoplifting

21 currently are defendants in lawsuits, and

84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

This same group of idiots crank out hundreds of new
laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Pretty soon these laws will be creating more home grown

terrorist than Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda group can muster.

So, good luck and enjoy the party until it lasts.

CC
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Andy, 17 Jan 2010 @ 10:54pm

Small businesses are the leading contributor of net new jobs to the United States economy — 93.5 percent in the last 20 years — and recent findings make clear that Americans recognize the importance of small businesses in revitalizing the national economy through job creation and innovation. Considering this - the US hostility to foreign businesses is quote subtle and inexplicable.
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haji, 19 Jan 2010 @ 4:16am

information
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tcsenter, 19 Jan 2010 @ 6:14am

This article is about the U.K. REVERSING a decades old trend of losing talent or foreign entrepreneurs to other countries, primarily the United States. The United States has no such trend and has consistently lead the world in such measures for decades.

IOW, Britain has more to gain because it had already scored so low in these measures relative to other nations (and especially against the USA).

Its like saying that a city which recently offered a massive tax incentive to attract a professional sports team and new stadium is "doing better" than a city which already has five professional sports teams and stadiums, because it has "gained" one new professional sports team and stadium in the past year, whereas the city which already has plenty of them has not gained any during the same time.
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Andrew Anderson, 19 Jan 2010 @ 9:53am

Contradictions Do Not Exist
When faced with a what appears to be a Contradiction like this, you have to check your basic premise and the facts. One of them is wrong, either the premise or the facts. In this case it is the premise that the people currently in charge of the US government want people to start businesses, want to attract other entrepreneurs, want small businesses to succeed and flourish. Yet, they do everything possible to not make this happen apparently. Hence the Contradiction. But there really is no Contradiction. They don't want any of that. The mistake is in the premise that they want Entrepreneurs to flourish here. If they did, they would not being making it so hard on small businesses by taxing and regulating them to death. They think that Capitalism is the problem, not the solution. Profits are evil and they have a right to any profit that they deem excessive (which means all profits). Even though they have done no work for it, taken no risk, they feel it belongs to the Government and "they" know what the fair thing to do with it is better than those evil Capitalists that made it. If you look at it from that standpoint it makes perfect sense and hence there is no Contradiction. This may sound crazy but it is true. The simplest answer no matter how bizarre it may sound, is usually the correct one. If they truly wanted to revive the economy overnight and see a boom like never before, they would put a moratorium on takes for all businesses for just one year. This would cost 1/3 of what the last stimulus package cost. The economy would take off overnight, unemployment would be down to the 5% of people that don't want to work and the revenues to the Government the next year would be triple what they were and continue. Pretty much anyone with half a brain could figure this out. But here again, they don't really want that to happen. If they did, they would be doing something different. Hence, the premise is incorrect. Cheers, Andrew Anderson www.21to21.com Profit Consultant
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Andrew Anderson, 19 Jan 2010 @ 10:29am

Contradictions Do Not Exist
When faced with a what appears to be a Contradiction like this, you have to check your basic premise and the facts. One of them is wrong, either the premise or the facts.

In this case it is the premise that the people currently in charge of the US government want people to start businesses, want to attract other entrepreneurs, want small businesses to succeed and flourish. Yet, they do everything possible to not make this happen apparently. Hence the Contradiction.

But there really is no Contradiction. They don't want any of that. The mistake is in the premise that they want Entrepreneurs to flourish here. If they did, they would not being making it so hard on small businesses by taxing and regulating them to death.

They think that Capitalism is the problem, not the solution. Profits are evil and they have a right to any profit that they deem excessive (which means all profits). Even though they have done no work for it, taken no risk, they feel it belongs to the Government and "they" know what the fair thing to do with it is better than those evil Capitalists that made it.

If you look at it from that standpoint it makes perfect sense and hence there is no Contradiction. This may sound crazy but it is true. The simplest answer no matter how bizarre it may sound, is usually the correct one.

If they truly wanted to revive the economy overnight and see a boom like never before, they would put a moratorium on takes for all businesses for just one year.

This would cost 1/3 of what the last stimulus package cost. The economy would take off overnight, unemployment would be down to the 5% of people that don't want to work and the revenues to the Government the next year would be triple what they were and continue.

Pretty much anyone with half a brain could figure this out. But here again, they don't really want that to happen. If they did, they would be doing something different.
Hence, the premise is incorrect.

I have to add though that with friends in the UK, they said we have no idea just how bad the Red Tape is there compared to the US.

Cheers, Andrew Anderson
www.21to21.com
Profit Consultant
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