Why I'd Build in America

Last year I spent 6+ months in America. UNC, North Carolina, to be exact.

Truly one of the best experiences I've ever undertaken.

I didn't think there'd be much of a culture shock to be honest, but looking back one thing that has really stood out to me is their attitude towards business.

In Australia, sometimes it feels like when you tell people you run your own business or you're trying to start something yourself, you often get met with the look that you're basically the equivalent of being unemployed.

But it made me think about living in the States more, especially if you're trying to pursue your own business goals.

From a purely ROI perspective I've figured if I have the same input in Australia as in the States (i.e. just working the same amount of hours), I could theoretically achieve a 10x output or higher.

This is based on a few things:

• Increased purchasing power: Americans just have more wealth than Australians.
• Increased willingness to spend: consumer culture is just much more encouraged there.
• Exchange rate: you can provide the same service and get paid the same absolute amount and purely via the exchange rate you could receive a 1.5x multiplier on your work.
• Lower taxes: lower federal tax, some states have no income tax, and increased business subsidies/loans.
• Housing/rent costs (median house price relative to median wage) are lower: Sydney is the second highest at 13.3x, only behind Hong Kong.
• Market size is 12.5x larger (purely by population): competition is more fierce, but if you can break in then the sky really is the limit.
• Network: the most powerful and least quantifiable one. In SF you could be 2 degrees of separation from someone like Peter Thiel. In Sydney, a little tougher.
• Lending laws: SBA loans let individuals borrow up to 90% of the loan amount, and businesses can use the business itself as the underlying asset. In Australia that framework doesn't exist; banks overwhelmingly want property as security, so housing rather than the business is what underpins lending.

Again, there are a lot of caveats. You have to take into account lifestyle, different laws, culture, being away from home, friends and family, and so on.

But purely from a business perspective, it looks pretty enticing. The power and encouragement given to businesses makes it so inviting to pursue your own thing.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think. Especially people who have lived in both places.