From my Latin American perspective, I'd say it's due to way less disposable income in emerging markets and less of a consumerism mindset.
America has the benefit of decades of intense consumerist propaganda to fend off the evil reds, while the biggest emerging markets are often very vocally against "Capitalism" (even if they would all love to own iPhones)
Maybe, but America has relatively low taxes and high income.
This is an anecdote, but I was looking at developer jobs in Europe and the salaries are pathetic. 65k Euros for a senior engineer with a 50% tax rate? Are you fucking kidding me? I can make 250k in the US at a 35% rate. It’s absurd.
Do keep in mind that Europe is not a single country. Within the European Union, salaries and tax rates vary greatly. For western Europe, that seems a bit low.
Besides the northern countries, the tax rate is not 50%. Most countries either have a flat rate that is well below that or have a system where you pay in boxes. Like %30 over the first 20k, then %47 over the remainder etc. On top of that, many countries have countless schemes that result in tax deductions. Like owning a house gets you a discount.
In almost all cases, the effective tax rate falls well below 50%.
This is an 11-year old article and honestly total bullshit. European developers and professionals in general are quite happy with the welfare in Europe. It's a completely different mindset. Yes we earn much less, but at least if we can sick or fired we know we can get some decent support from the state.
a) Money. Most places do not have a lot of surplus wealth, and only a few places in Europe do. Consumers need to have extra money to spend on 'stuff' beyond the very basics, i.e. a consumer oriented economy for a lot of ads to work.
b) Fragmentation. This is a two-sided problem. Most countries are very small, have their own laws, regs, and networks for everything that are very established. So the unit cost of marketing to advertisers etc. is going to be higher. And things move slower in most places.
c) Behaviour. American culture is pop culture. Sometimes it's hard to explain that one. Americans move according to trends. Social mores change quickly depending on whoever has the biggest megaphone: news, broadcasters, even advertisers. It's a place where commercial interests drive aspiration, even morality - witness the amount of virtue signalling in ads, i.e. Nike's recent campaign etc.
W. Europe, the other lucrative market - they are really traditional in their ways. They already have their day full of things to do. Germans leave work at 5 and go and drink a specific kind of beer at the local pub. They play certain kinds of sports. They buy certain things. In the UK, I've been to 'rich people's' homes and they have these ancient toasters. But they work! They don't just 'buy new stuff' it's not part of their culture. It's the same in most of the rest of the world.
The rest of the world is really just not designed as a big commercial vehicle.
