> - people who have the skills to create startups in France tend to do it outside of France because they will have access to better capital/labor markets

There are a lot of French people here in the bay area.

From what they told me, it's actually easier to come to the bay area, navigate through the US immigration system and get funded than get funded at home. Not only that, some startups got funding from VC funds with LPs... from France!

Also, how easy is it to fire people in France? If it’s difficult then startups will be much more reluctant to hire in the first place, and founders to embark on the whole startup adventure which necessarily implies a lot of hiring/firing.

Quite hard, but other countries with similar labor laws (like the Netherlands) manage to have decent startup ecosystems.

> the culture is not the same as the US. French people tend to be very financially risk-averse

Interesting, given the number of people who claim that better social benefits in the US would encourage more startups and other business formation.

There is no such claim. Id claim that a system that helps all of of society by providing health, employment, income, childcare, housing and transportation security isn’t necessarily completely toxic for a small number of Startup founders, as a system. Since it also may help founders to an extent. Its about individual risks that are possible.

The problem in Germany and France is the VC and business culture, but thats not primarily a result of income taxes.