> Yes, but who's leading the world in technological growth?
Actually, China, Mongolia and India are leading the world in GDP per capita growth. If by "technological growth" you mean labor productivity growth, other countries with parental benefits, such as Denmark and Sweden, are doing fine.
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDYGTH
It's not impossible to grow while supporting enjoyable lives for your citizens. In fact, as median wealth and median income increases, automation and broader technological advancement become more worthwhile.
The first group of countries are using existing technology to "catch up", so clearly their growth rate ought to be higher. This is "globalization" rather than "innovation". And as I mentioned, there are certainly other countries with great work-life balances that still enjoy high productivity. By the common sentiments I see in this thread, it seems that a lot of people would much prefer these places than Silicon Valley, and I encourage them to research further as in the link you posted.
That being said, here are some questions: where are the leading computer science researchers? Machine learning experts? Software entrepreneurs? Largest and most successful technology ventures whose market caps are greater than the GDP of a lot of countries?
While I can't prove it, I strongly suspect that you don't get world-changing technological innovation without living an unbalanced life.
According to QS World University Rankings, countries such as UK, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Singapore, which do offer parental benefits and are a fraction of the population of the United States, all place well in the rankings.
Also, the USA is a very large market which is why a lot of pure software companies are headquartered there. Specialization is inherent in larger markets. A lot of other large vertically-aligned technology companies are headquartered around the world, such as Volkswagen, Samsung and Alibaba.
The lionization of specific billionaire entrepreneurs is more due to abnormally low tax rates (by Western standards) on extremely high incomes.
Actually, China, Mongolia and India are leading the world in GDP per capita growth. If by "technological growth" you mean labor productivity growth, other countries with parental benefits, such as Denmark and Sweden, are doing fine. http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDYGTH
It's not impossible to grow while supporting enjoyable lives for your citizens. In fact, as median wealth and median income increases, automation and broader technological advancement become more worthwhile.