Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing? • Hacker News Board

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#691

Post by ChuckNorris89 » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 12:55 PM UTC

j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #568

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Environment-polluting industry? Like VW's cheating diesel engines who's emissions I have to breathe as I walk/bike to work? >Social media giants? Nobody forces you to use those social media giants whereas I can't choose to only breathe only air not contaminated by VW diesel emissions.

Yeah but at least we have those rules that VW could then break. And the negative effects of social media affect me if I use it or not.

>Yeah but at least we have those rules that VW could then break

What kind of logic is this, that breaking rules is fine since at least we have them? Honestly, that sounds like a child who just wants something his way rather than a logical argument. What's the point of rules if you don't bother enforcing them?

Speaking of rules, do you know the ones Wirecard blatantly broke and BaFin not only ignored the but actively pursued the foreign entities who tried to expose Wirecard's fraud, basically doing BaFin's job for them?

Yeah, big German companies are such saints and the Government institutions so efficient and incoruptibile in Europe /s.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#692

Post by RGamma » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 12:56 PM UTC

krakatau1 wrote: post #464

This thread proves to me that every discussion on US/Europe comparison is the same. There are people from USA who always bash on it (Reddit Bernie Sanders socialist brigades) and Europeans who never visited and feel they have to explain/rationalize widening gap between US and Europe. I know it all anecdata, but my experience is completely different. I am from Croatia, I lived there until my late twenties when I got a…

US seems more polarized (esp in politics). The good is better, the bad is worse, the sane are saner, the crazy crazier.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#693

Post by j_wtf_all_taken » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:00 PM UTC

varjag wrote: post #656

j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I also sometimes have those bad days where I just wanna insult people without even telling them exactly why ...

It was you who brought Trump and then to top it off bloody Nazis with a personal slant. Here is a brilliant idea for you, don't try to jab complete strangers you know nothing about, keep the debate to subject matter. Then you'll skip the whole hoopla of trying to arguing yourself out from uncomfortable corner you paint yourself into.

You talked about decision makers, didn't you? Was Trump not a decision maker?

So I'm still not following, you really gotta give more context.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#694

Post by withinboredom » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:00 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #535

thow-01187 wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imho, what was happening in the Silicon Valley economy looks much more like displacement of value rather than creation of value (1). Google/Facebook have displaced other ad formats, redirecting money to themselves. AWS have displaced IT technicians in other corporations, redirecting money to themselves. Apple is selling overpriced commodity hardware, redirecting money to themselves. Uber is displacing taxis, redirect…

I people freely move from one service or product to another, usually it's because the new service is cheaper or better than the old service or product. That's direct value to the end user right there. Moving to AWS from running your own data centres is vastly more cost effective for most companies, you can build systems faster, you can scale them instantly, you can move resources between regions easily, you can focus…

> You cannot buy hardware like it anywhere else, at any price.

Strange, I bought a PC with 2x the specs at the same price as a maxed out Mac…

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#695

Post by j_wtf_all_taken » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:01 PM UTC

whiddershins wrote: post #665

j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, I kind of get why people might not like your argumentation style. Yeah. I know I should dial it down a little. But I'm actually really concerned about the US. They do have a lot of mass shootings, and not even tackling this problem does point to a larger dysfunction in the US. And Trump does not accept is loss and 60% of republicans agree. That's why I actually fear that the next elections in the US will not be…

You don’t understand what the mass shootings are and who does them.

Yeah but the people writing the articles I read do.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#696

Post by Delk » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:02 PM UTC

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #653

Delk wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European who probably agrees with you regarding many policies: You may be able to argue that quality of life is better in Europe or with European-style policies [1]. Everyone having health insurance and less of a need to worry about your basics needs met are fair points. I wouldn't want to live in a society that doesn't seem to care that much about economic equality. But "about to be ruled by a fascist"? Trump l…

> But "about to be ruled by a fascist"? That was wrong, but just slightly. It wasn't fascism,but nazism. «Evidence in Trump supporter’s trial suggests he espoused Nazi ideals» https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/brendan-hun... > And "getting shot at school/street" is pretty much just a cheap shot. It's an enormous social and political problem, caused by the way people live in US and the incentive system…

> It wasn't fascism,but nazism.

That's not really the point, and I'm not sure the semantics matter. I'm also not doubting that Trump would take up any "ideal" that supports his ego and power. Or that, among Trump supporters, there are people who would in fact be ready to go so far as fascism or nazism.

I just think that, in a thread about the quality of life in different economic cultures, "about to be ruled by a fascists" is kind of cheap rhetoric if you can't actually argue that the U.S. are in fact close to being ruled by one.

> Coming from Europe I am used to not being killed in the streets, in US the risk of being shot is 10 times higher.

That's continuing along nearly the same lines of rhetoric as the comment I responded to.

10 times the risk means there's some kind of a meaningful difference, but that doesn't mean it becomes a huge risk. "10 times higher" is a lot as a ratio, but it doesn't mean shootings actually happen a lot. They might, but your figure alone isn't enough to show that. That's the same as with disease: 10 times the risk of a rare disease might still be rare. It might mean an actual, substantially elevated risk, or it might not. I gets you nice headlines either way, of course.

If you wanted to argue that getting shot at is a major quality of life concern in the U.S., you would need to show that it actually is a major concern for a large proportion of Americans that affects their quality of life, not just that the ratio of occurrences compared to Europe is large.

Again, I disagree about the style of rhetoric. I don't want to argue that gun violence isn't a problem. But I'm not sure us Europeans should tell Americans how that affects their quality of life in general. It's also easy to fall into the trap of stereotypes such as school shootings being everywhere and affecting everyday life. If it's not actually like that, then it's just a stereotype. Which is exactly what ChuckNorris89 was complaining about.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#697

Post by ericmay » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:02 PM UTC

kawsper wrote: post #598

jopsen wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uber is displacing taxis, redirecting money to themselves. I lived in San Francisco 2013-2018, before Uber I very rarely used taxis -- to/from the airport maybe. Having moved back to Denmark, I again very rarely use taxis. But when I lived in the US, I used Uber many times each week. Sometimes to/from work. But taxis in Denmark is easily 5x as expensive, and generally unavailable on-demand. So now I was forced to b…

Have you tried using Moove? It's the same on-demand concept of Uber, but it's Dantaxi that are behind it with certified taxi drivers: https://moove.taxi

Is there something special about certified taxi drivers? Do they have a test to pass on driving skills or?

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#698

Post by iso1210 » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:04 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #512

ativzzz wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A very US mindset. I live in the US and I completely disagree with your outlook on life. Great food with friends, or a vacation with family provides so much more satisfaction to me than anything a job could provide. The only thing a job provides that those things can't is money. I'm not so egotistical to think that I'm special and not easily replaceable. I'm no Steve Jobs or Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. I'm just…

> Great food with friends, or a vacation with family provides so much more satisfaction to me than anything a job could provide. But a better job, with more money, more time off, more relaxed conditions, lets you get more of these things you say you want. Also look at the current pandemic. Due to their work ethic and research power the US has been able to vaccinate their people so they can enjoy life again while much…

No, the US arranged to buy far more vaccines at a quicker rate than most european countries, however are below Hungary and the UK in terms of people vaccinated.

Does this mean that Hungary and the UK have a better work ethic?

Looking at western vaccines

Pfizer–BioNTech -- developed in Germany

Oxford–AstraZeneca -- developed in the UK

Moderna -- developed in the US

Johnson & Johnson -- developed in the Netherlands

How does the "US Research Power" play into that?

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths

Says that in the last 7 days there were 1.32 deaths/100k in the US and 1.37 in the EU, so even with all that money in buying up the vaccines it hasn't saved lives. In Hungary and the UK where vaccine rates are similar to the US, deaths/100k were 0.87 and 0.25 respectively.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#699

Post by imtringued » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:06 PM UTC

marvin wrote: post #548

C19is20 wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firing isn't 'harder', it just has to be done correctly.

Giving two written warnings two weeks apart for one of the five objective reasons that are grounds for firing, then firing with a three month notice period is by definition harder than saying "you're fired, please leave the building immediately".

I don't know what country you are talking about but if it was about Germany then what you just said is a lot of bullshit.

What you can do in Germany is the following: "you're fired, please leave in x weeks" (x depends on the employment contract, usually two weeks). Those two weeks are just a matter of dignity. To give both the business and the employer time to part.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#700

Post by iso1210 » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:07 PM UTC

cube2222 wrote: post #681

chrisseaton wrote: post #655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mentioning US research power here when the main vaccine being used - Pfizer - was developed in German BioNTech is quite weird. The US managed to independently produce a vaccine. No country in Europe managed that. For example the French vaccine is only just being trialed now. > you'll also see that US and Europe are very close in that regard What data are you reading? US has fully vaccinated 42% - Europe 23%. Deaths…

> The US managed to independently produce a vaccine. No country in Europe managed that. Sure, it's a true statement, still doesn't change the fact that for Pfizer the manpower was European, the capital was US. At least that's what I've been reading. You're obviously right about the other vaccines, not denying that. > What data are you reading? US has fully vaccinated 42% - Europe 23%. You're right, I was reading into…

In the UK, I tend to work 9-3 with 5-10 minutes to make lunch most of the time. If I go to an office to see people we'll get to the pub about 1pm and the meeting can go on quite late, but it's rare.

Obviously some days I'll work longer hours due to operational needs, but I'm what I think the US calls a "Salaried" person who controls my own hours, rather than receiving an hourly wage.