Is that risk aversion, or something else though? I find Americans much more primed to consume and try new products.

> I find Americans much more primed to consume and try new products.

Well, yes. Because Americans aren't very risk averse, and are pretty strongly novelty-seeking.

It is just one example. There are numerous.

Canadians have a pastime of whining about our Big 5 banks. Nobody ever switches to another bank.

Same with telecom. We complain about the prices. Nobody tries their competitors like Freedom.

I hear stories of students joining startups in the USA over FAANG. Here many people do startups to boost their resumes for big company jobs (I was part of a startup accelerator where a lot of people were resume building). I know people doing this now. Building startups to be more employable by Amazon.

> Canada at least is an extremely risk averse place.

That also seems to be the case for investments.

Everything seems to be centered around "safe" businesses with proven track record or just real estate. There's no VC putting money on a crazy idea (and they getting a home run one time out of 10).

How nationally representative and/or comparable are your samples of Canadian and American people?