Live data from Hacker News

Buy European Made. Support European Values

buy-european-made.eu

141–150 of 295 posts

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#141
post #20
post #8

Not every european company embodies european values. As an example, Signal is listed as a US company people might want a european replacement for – and yet Signal represents european values much better than many of the alternatives.

What are European values, actually? I don't think there is a lot that all member state citizens actually share, except for a lot of wishful thinking.

That’s the question that is easy to answer with a single document:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/char_2012/oj/eng

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Promoting peace and democracy? By arresting politicians opposed to them and funding and supporting wars?

The favorite russian playbook, framing people who support Ukraine's right to self defense in face of a genocidal invasion as warmongers. EU security == Ukraine security.

Assuming you are not from Ukraine, how much of your paycheck are you willing to sacrifice for the support for Ukraine, like indefinitely?

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#143
post #45

[flagged]

> maybe they can adopt "stop begging USA for military protection" as their value first. Basically we did that already. But the preferred wording is "Don't rely on the USA because they are no longer trustworty."

> Basically we did that already.

You mean they were always capable of doing it but choose to fleece USA instead ? Ironically proving trump right.

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#144
post #122

I get why people might feel this impulse, but they should realize that it follows the same logic as tariffs. You do not gain by closing yourself off from the world. Having the choice among the best products in the world is prosperity. Whether you restrain yourself by choice or by force, it's the same zero-sum mindset. Free trade, with some exceptions for fledgling industries, is one of the rare cases that makes every…

This is not about value signaling. It’s a reaction to the fact that US is willing to shutdown US service offerings and hardware owned by counter parties for political arm twisting.

US products are great. But suddenly they look just as risky as Chinese offerings for any critical infrastructure.

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#145
post #11
post #8

Not every european company embodies european values. As an example, Signal is listed as a US company people might want a european replacement for – and yet Signal represents european values much better than many of the alternatives.

This is a great point where nationality does not reflect political values. Many Americans exist that do not carry the opinion of their government, as do many Russians. If a global set of "Don't be an asshole" values could be defined, put into words, shared and progressed, it would have much greater value to a consumer and the world than merely going back to nationalism and protectionism.

But it is not nationalism as the set of common shared values aren't bound to nations. And neither is it protectionism in the traditional meaning of the term. If you don't participate in upholding the value system (or worse actively seeks to destroy it) then you don't get to reap the benefits. I read this "buy European" initiative as a "don't buy American" in light of the current political situation. Withholding trade is an incentive to US voters to fix their system and tap into the benefits once again as a reward.

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#147
post #38

Wouldn't you implicitly support Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel, Dell/HP, Snowflake/Databricks, Datadog, etc. with almost every sale though? For many European businesses, infrastructure and platform costs likely exceed their own margins. In that sense, a lot of European businesses are really just "value-added resellers" of US hardware and platforms.

Agreed Europe has never had to care about that because we have always supported the US. Now there is always Loongson/Zhaoxin to base your infra on. Considering the way the US is heading you might see people considering a "neutral party" in the war. AWS is nice and all not unique though.

You absolutely could go bare-metal with emerging local platforms and a Chinese stack — that’s the path Russia (and obviously China itself) is heading down. But...

Equinix? US. Digital Realty? US. NTT? Japan. Interxion? US. CyrusOne? US. That’s your top five DC/colo operators in Europe.

Same story with Tier-1 and Tier-1.5 ISPs.

It’s not just software. It’s not even just hardware. It’s the whole stack — down to power grids, land property rights, and regulatory frameworks.

Nationalization? Multidecade supply chain reconfiguration? Trillions in investment to rebuild local capacity — likely still with deep reliance on China for core infra components.

Europe isn’t just "a bit dependent" — it’s completely entangled.

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#148
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startup CEO from Europe here. How am I supposed to turn a blind eye to the risk that the dependency from the US has become lately?

How is US dependency a risk?

We will get Greenland one way or another. That's a horrid statement if you are Danish (and worse if you live on that island). Realistically it's a horrid statement, anyways.

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#149
post #135
post #122

I get why people might feel this impulse, but they should realize that it follows the same logic as tariffs. You do not gain by closing yourself off from the world. Having the choice among the best products in the world is prosperity. Whether you restrain yourself by choice or by force, it's the same zero-sum mindset. Free trade, with some exceptions for fledgling industries, is one of the rare cases that makes every…

For me this is not about retaliation but about being self reliant.

What you should really aim for is companies that can win in the market. "Found European" instead of "Buy European" if you will. Right now might be a good time to try and reverse some of the brain drain into US tech.

Re: Buy European Made. Support European Values

#150
post #26
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great point where nationality does not reflect political values. Many Americans exist that do not carry the opinion of their government, as do many Russians. If a global set of "Don't be an asshole" values could be defined, put into words, shared and progressed, it would have much greater value to a consumer and the world than merely going back to nationalism and protectionism.

> Many Americans exist that do not carry the opinion of their government, as do many Russians. I can’t speak for Russia because I have no data, but most Americans don’t carry the opinion of this government.

My point was that a company, and thus products and employees, do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the government of which it is based.

Besides taking ethical actions, how do you signal that that you share a certain set of political values with your consumers and shareholders, instead of your "somewhat arbitrary" law makers. It is a big shift, and not always an option, to move physical factories, workplaces, etc.

Post reply on HN