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

economist.com

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

#841

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

sgt wrote: post #713
ido wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not against immigration but I think Europe should be seriously reconsidering non-western immigration as it will simply clash. I don't get why you want to filter them by "non-western"? I have arab, african, indian & east-asian friends here in Berlin that I am sure are net-postives for society. Why not set the filters to something more directly related to what you want to achieve? Such as education level, having a…

I think you are deceiving yourself by restricting your dataset to those in your circles. Of course there are many smart and productive immigrants in Germany from all over the world. I said I am not against immigration, but shutting it down for a period or restricting heavily might be worth it due to the potential risks that exist long term. There's no real harm in trying that for Germany's voters, and by doing so you…

> but shutting it down for a period or restricting heavily might be worth it due to the potential risks that exist long term (...) by doing so you will also keep the far right wingers at bay

So that means that the people in Germany that would vote for right-wing parties are the problem, not the immigrants themselves, no matter how well they behave. I agree with that.

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

#842

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

sgt wrote: post #717
j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's why you now see ghettos and zones where the police don't go in France, Sweden and even UK. That's failed policy by the people that are already here, not the fault of the immigrants. > I think Europe should be seriously reconsidering non-western immigration as it will simply clash Yeah ... wait what? That's kinda ... what? Why? What's the problem with that? So you don't seem to know, but it worked out very we…

If you limit immigration heavily, yet allow for immigration from countries that almost never cause problems, you will limit the risks. Lets then expand on Western countries to simply mean developed nations. Anything from US, Canada, Mexico to Australia, Russia and Japan.

But that's the thing, they don't cause too much trouble, so "yet allow for immigration from countries that almost never cause problems" means let's continue doing what we're doing.

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

#843

Post by boudin »

zepto wrote: post #732
boudin wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairphone is European and small. There's really interesting enineering under the hood. If anything, Apple is the counter example of being efficient at innovation. They mainly package and market existing ideas in a really efficient way, but having such a capitalisation actually create so little is a waste. The same money spent on a lot of smaller companies is much more likely to produce actual innovations

> They mainly package and market existing ideas in a really efficient way This is completely erroneous. They do often take ideas originating from outside the company, either by acquihires, consuming open source, or simply just using unprotected ideas. However the amount of resources they pour into refining and integrating those ideas into a platform that can be manufactured at scale and that consumers and developers…

I'm not saying they don't invest much, I just say the result is really underwhelming for the capitalisation they have to say the least. It's just more of the same thing year after year.

So yeah, they invest a bit, but it looks like a big waste of resources in my opinion. The same money given to a lot of diffferent companies would drive much more innovation and employ much more people.

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

#844

Post by SOMA_BOFH »

dang wrote: post #815
SOMA_BOFH wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

your anecdotal evidence is quite entertaining. please continue.

Would you please stop posting flamewar and/or unsubstantive comments to HN? You've been doing it a lot and we ban that sort of account because we're trying for a different kind of site here. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit more to heart, we'd be grateful.

will do. you are correct.

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

#845

Post by joelbluminator »

relativ575 wrote: post #757
joelbluminator wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think unemployment will usually translate to unhappiness. If you are unemployed 30-40 year what do you do? Start a family? Can't. Travel the world? Can't. Find consolation in religion? Very few people in Europe do that. Jobs are very very important for self esteem and mental well being.

If we don't even agree on what happiness means, how can we decide whether people in the US or EU are happier?

Well we can ask people how happy they are by making them score their lives, that's what most happiness researchers do. We can pretty much all agree on what unhappiness is right? Starvation is unhappy. Terrible war is unhappy. Mental illness is unhappy. Loneliness is almost always unhappy. I don't think it's as subjective as you make it to be. The pyramid of needs is quite universal.

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

#846

Post by yarcob »

7steps2much wrote: post #654
yarcob wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's why most founders don't actually register a GmbH. Many small businesses are sole proprietors, even businesses with a few employees.

Isn't it possible to fund a "mini" GmbH with only 10.000€ and build up to the 35.000€ over a span of a couple of years or something? I think I remember something like that being the case.

In my opinion the capital requirements are really not the biggest hurdle. If you start a GmbH, you have so many extra accounting requirements and everything gets more complicated. You also pay a lot more taxes in most cases. So it's something that many people try to avoid.

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

#848

Post by 238475235243 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #327
laurent92 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the end, one may talk about all the startups (when the BPI pumps billions into it, I sure hope there are some startups and medium companies), but EU has proven unable to build an Apple . It would be dismantled here, and CEO beaten up before reaching any interesting level. DailyMotion (French) was as big as Youtube. Many others like this. We always end up #2, and the Silicon Valley still decides what is ok to say o…

The EU doesn't build Googles or Amazons, because those companies are inherently unhealthy monopolies. But it has built numerous tech successes, including Nokia, Spotify, Wise, Airbus, and others. In reality the EU has curbed the imperial pretensions of aggressive US corporates numerous times - including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, and (soon) Facebook.

Nokia blew up. Spotify was funded by the Danish government. Wise I've never heard of and Airbus is a pan-EU jobs program sponsored primarily by the UK, French and German governments to make sure there's jobs for random people to make wings in Wales or welding in Toulouse or whatever.

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

#849

Post by 238475235243 »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #743
Nimitz14 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NHS is probably the worst health care system in the developed world.

Hahahahahaha! It really really isn’t, it’s a national treasure and it’s amazing how well it runs given how numerous governments have underfunded it. Every study on international healthcare shows the NHS is near the top in every category and once you factor in the cost per person it’s the top in the world. If you have a life threatening issue you will be seen and treated as well on the NHS as anywhere in the US, EXCEP…

In Soviet Russia, grain farming is national treasure. Iz best in World! Once you factor in per-person free labor, is most top in the world! Everyone is treated same in Soviet collective farm, won't matter if you're rich or poor!

Anyway. Some of us have been through the NHS a few times. I remember is was kind of ok under the Blair funding, not so great before or after.

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

#850

Post by ido »

j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #840
throwaway210222 wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not set the filters to something more directly related to what you want to achieve? Fine I'll bite: draw cartoons of you-know-who, see if they still integrate so seamlessly. Its the elephant in the room.

There's assholes everywhere, in any group, so also there's immigrant assholes. Not letting immigrants in doesn't help with the assholes problem.

And also not every non-westerner is a Muslim, and not every Muslim is religious/cares about someone drawing Muhammad.
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