Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, I don't know, maybe writing it so that it doesn't mean companies in the EU "basically have to cease all economic activity"? Or writing it so that it doesn't claim to tell me what I have to do with my website when I live in another jurisdiction. I laugh at GDPR. The EU can keep its bureaucracy to itself thank you very much. Making simple websites illegal and forcing me to hire a lawyer to figure out not what I'm a…
Companies in the EU need cease no legitimate economic activity. What one must do is seek consent of European citizens before using their data. Those abusing personal information without consent deserve all the fines that can be thrown at them. I'd rather there were personal liability in the same manner as Title IX of Sarbanes-Oxley, but in the meantime, this is the best there is.
As of now, as a business you essentially have three alternatives:
1. Run the entire infrastructure you need yourself or have it run by EU-based companies guaranteed to have no relations with US-based entities whatsoever (Good luck with finding those ...). This, for example, includes payment systems and banking infrastructure, because guess where many EU-based banks host their infrastructure? That's right, AWS.
2. Go out of business.
3. Ignore this aspect of GDPR for now, document everything, continue to do your own due diligence, and hope for the best.