Perhaps I’m a bit too excited about this recent article in The Economist, which details how many years it takes a ‘median breadwinner’ to earn $1M in various countries, but I was stoked to see France place at #8, behind most of Northern Europe, the USA, Canada & Japan. Here on the Rude Baguette, we spend a fair amount of time debunking myths about creating companies in France, and the evidence keeps stacking up in France’s favor for company creation: we’re the #3 innovator in the World, our tax & labor ecosystem is undergoing a cultural change, our Entrepreneurs are actually fighting for the ecosystem here, and France continues to top the list of European tech companies that are the most advanced, like on Earlybird’s Ciaran O’Leary in this recent blog post.
Specifically, the report looks to assess How long would it take for an average person to earn $1M, and so looks “how much the main breadwinner in an average household makes each year (before tax).”
On this measure, America creates the swiftest millionaires, and also the most (around 5m households, or 4% of the total). South of the border, Mexicans can expect to toil for three centuries to earn the same. For those struggling to imagine $1m, consider this: stacked up and denominated in $100 notes, it would reach over a metre high and weigh ten kilograms (22 lb).
Paris will continue to get passed up for press coverage, and it will continue to be a top location for VC investment, because it will continue to produce great tech startups. Talk about underappreciated & undervalued. At least we’ll be earning $1 Million before those Brit’s across the pond.