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Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

foreignpolicy.com

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Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#401

Post by toomuchtodo »

khuey wrote: post #365
ADeerAppeared wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EU didn't go into an uncontrolled spree investing every company that had .com in its name and ruined thousands of lives and wasted billions of dollars. This is the thing that so many Americans in tech don't seem to understand. VC Twitter is full of smugposting about how the US has "$5 trillion market-cap of startups" and the EU doesn't. And what they miss is that the EU doesn't want Silicon Valley. It doesn't want…

AAPL's profit is roughly equivalent to the GDP of Slovakia.

I understand you were rebutting OPs point that not every tech company is a capital furnace, but when framed in this manner, this sounds like something to be solved, not something to be proud of. That’s the difference between the EU and the US, and there is a strong case to be made that life is better in the EU when observing majorities.

Who is benefiting from Apple’s profits being the size of a small country’s GDP? Not most people, therefore, why would this be optimized for?

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#402

Post by TylerE »

sangnoir wrote: post #240
lolinder wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sure, you could always argue that about anything, but that's not a refutation of this particular argument in this particular situation. Apple's walled garden produces a lot of real benefits for its customers that are part of what make it successful, and dismantling their walled garden is going to harm consumers. I would never pick an Apple device for myself. I would also never recommend an Android phone to my m…

> Apple's walled garden produces a lot of real benefits for its customers that are part of what make it successful, and dismantling their walled garden is going to harm consumers. What are those benefits, and why would they evaporate if Apple adds an "Install from other sources" toggle? If you want to exclusively benefit from Apple's discernment, keep that toggle off and stay in the walled garden.If the benefits are…

When the tech support scammer calls your mother, there’s a decent chance it convinces to check that box and install who knows what that backdoors the phone.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#403

Post by Zpalmtree »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #115
buzzert wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've also been trying to extract as much personal info as possible for profit. Because regulators in the USA are hamstrung, they are used to being able to basically doing stuff that would be illegal if it were in physical stores/pre-existing industries. Did you actually read the article? I don't know how you square this kobayashi maru situation, unless you think Meta is outright lying about it: > Europe recently…

> In a very real sense, the EU has ruled that Meta’s core business model is illegal. Is this actually bad?

yes, arbitrarily killing business people like is bad

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#404

Post by esalman »

KaiserPro wrote: post #88

A company that provides a phone service (mobile or other) has to conform to a large amount of regulatory red tape. Why? because either a company before tried to monopolise the entire country, or they killed someone. Now, large tech companies haven't wholesale killed people (unlike say tobacco, or talc powder, 3M and half of their solvents, weed killer, most car makers, etc etc) but they have been trying desperately t…

Large tech companies haven't wholesale killed people in the same way big tobacco haven't killed any people. Nobody smokes a cigarette and immediately die. But one would have to be immensely dense not to see the correlation between smoking habit and lung disease, or Facebook refusing to moderate social media activity in Burma and some of the worst atrocities committed on humans anywhere this century.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#405

Post by maxerickson »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #401
khuey wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AAPL's profit is roughly equivalent to the GDP of Slovakia.

I understand you were rebutting OPs point that not every tech company is a capital furnace, but when framed in this manner, this sounds like something to be solved, not something to be proud of. That’s the difference between the EU and the US, and there is a strong case to be made that life is better in the EU when observing majorities. Who is benefiting from Apple’s profits being the size of a small country’s GDP? N…

Apple makes a lot of profit because their products provide a lot of value.

Do you think that if you compare the profit that Apple makes to the value that that users get that Apple has the larger share of it? To a disturbing degree?

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#406

Post by toomuchtodo »

maxerickson wrote: post #405
toomuchtodo wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand you were rebutting OPs point that not every tech company is a capital furnace, but when framed in this manner, this sounds like something to be solved, not something to be proud of. That’s the difference between the EU and the US, and there is a strong case to be made that life is better in the EU when observing majorities. Who is benefiting from Apple’s profits being the size of a small country’s GDP? N…

Apple makes a lot of profit because their products provide a lot of value. Do you think that if you compare the profit that Apple makes to the value that that users get that Apple has the larger share of it? To a disturbing degree?

Certainly, if a company’s profits are the size of a small country’s GDP, I find that disturbing regardless of the value they’re delivering. Value is the experience and consumer excess, profits are fiat. Could that same value be delivered with compressed profits leading to greater consumer excess? I believe so. Not all profits are earned, some are inherent once an org achieves a certain maturity or industry position. Visa and Mastercard skimming a non insignificant amount off of US GDP, for example. Is that value?

https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/LAZONICK_Willia... (“Profits Without Prosperity: How Stock Buybacks Manipulate the Market, and Leave Most Americans Worse Off”)

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#408

Post by Zpalmtree »

ADeerAppeared wrote: post #340
okanat wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU didn't go into an uncontrolled spree investing every company that had .com in its name and ruined thousands of lives and wasted billions of dollars. EU usually doesn't let companies to grow uncontrollable sizes that the government is completely controlled by them not the citizens. The existence of Big Tech means that the government did a very poor job in protecting the consumers and the free and fair market

> EU didn't go into an uncontrolled spree investing every company that had .com in its name and ruined thousands of lives and wasted billions of dollars. This is the thing that so many Americans in tech don't seem to understand. VC Twitter is full of smugposting about how the US has "$5 trillion market-cap of startups" and the EU doesn't. And what they miss is that the EU doesn't want Silicon Valley. It doesn't want…

oh my God please stop inovating and making jobs think of the externalities!!!

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#409

Post by edmundsauto »

kube-system wrote: post #218
KaiserPro wrote: post #88

A company that provides a phone service (mobile or other) has to conform to a large amount of regulatory red tape. Why? because either a company before tried to monopolise the entire country, or they killed someone. Now, large tech companies haven't wholesale killed people (unlike say tobacco, or talc powder, 3M and half of their solvents, weed killer, most car makers, etc etc) but they have been trying desperately t…

The move-fast-and-break-things mentality of many tech companies has absolutely killed people. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/parents-kids-died-after-dr... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/01/business/instagram-suicid... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/electric-scooter-electric-bike-... https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/family-sues-airbnb-19-m... https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/rohingya-seek-reparat... https:…

The hard part about reality is the opposite is also true. Cancer patients have gatekept access to cutting edge drugs, etc.

I believe your worldview is correct and also incomplete. It’s really fucking hard to come up with general rules that cannot be gamed.

Re: Europe is in danger of regulating its tech market out of existence

#410

Post by tcfhgj »

XCSme wrote: post #353
tcfhgj wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd even go to banning all commercial ads, like several cities have done offline. Reasons? Click bait, boosts consumerism, ads imply essentially a tax for everyone (remember that ads have to be paid by the consumers), CEO spam, annoying, environmental costs

> boosts consumerism Don't we live in a capitalist world?

What does it matter?
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