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Go European: Discover European products and services

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Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#251

Post by mentalgear »

whatever1 wrote: post #238
DaveMcMartin wrote: post #225

It’s genuinely sad to see the world splintering into waves of nationalistic protectionism. Not long ago, we had something promising, a slow but steady crawl toward a united global community. Progress was gradual, sure, but it was real. Countries could specialize and trade freely: I’d buy your chips, you’d buy my steel, and we’d both come out ahead. It worked. Now, though, it’s all about "national sovereignty" and "in…

Turns out capital without borders ruins prices for scarce things (like housing) everywhere.

Housing is a fundamental human right.

Corporations should not be allowed to buy or hold large amounts of residential property or zoned housing land. They create artificial scarcity by holding it back, driving up prices purely for profit.

A less direct but still effective approach is to restrict residential property purchases to citizens. This helps prevent international hedge funds and (sovereign) wealth-funds from monopolizing the housing market.

Some of the most affordable housing markets in the world, such as Austria, implement these policies—alongside strong state-led housing initiatives.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#252

Post by torpfactory »

whatever1 wrote: post #238
DaveMcMartin wrote: post #225

It’s genuinely sad to see the world splintering into waves of nationalistic protectionism. Not long ago, we had something promising, a slow but steady crawl toward a united global community. Progress was gradual, sure, but it was real. Countries could specialize and trade freely: I’d buy your chips, you’d buy my steel, and we’d both come out ahead. It worked. Now, though, it’s all about "national sovereignty" and "in…

Turns out capital without borders ruins prices for scarce things (like housing) everywhere.

I’d argue most of the cost of scare housing is supply limits imposed by ridiculous over regulation of new construction. It’s not like we forgot how to build houses and apartments we just aren’t allowed to.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#253

Post by diego_moita »

mogall wrote: post #230

Yeah this isn't what people make it out to be. I already pointed it out in another thread about this exact website: Go and search for "keyboard", what's the first search result? Logitech, a company that makes their products almost exclusively in china. There's nothing european about this. "Yeah but it's a european company so!" yeah i don't care. It's not an european product. It's a chinese product. I don't care if th…

These days, from a Canadian perspective, non-US is already good enough.

Yeah, China sucks. But the US sucks even more.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#254

Post by t43562 »

bigfudge wrote: post #219
t43562 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We haven't built quite as much of a security dependence on China so I think this is more like the US becoming "another China."

But we have huge economic dependence which could also be used. We need to wean ourself off the Chinese supply chain. This will take decades, but the lesson here is that it will be used against us in future. Europe is big enough as an internal market to sustain a good quality of life for the majority of the population — even if our 1% are disadvantaged relative to those in US, Russia. We have the capital and resources…

I understand that but what's nagging at me is this: I think civilisation is about building dependence really.

Civilisation is organising in larger and larger groups - everyone becoming more dependent on each other and having laws and so on to resolve problems instead of fighting.

.....so somehow, for the sake of making Star Trek and all those wonderful science fiction stories possible.....we have to get that dependence back somehow. I'm joking but not joking. Some Americans are reasoable and somehow, for the world to survive, we have to find some way to help reasonable people all over the world to work together. So we can reach the science fiction future.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#255

Post by jeroenhd »

mqus wrote: post #165
pembrook wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to turn this comment into a gold plaque and point to it any time an HN commenter repeats the “EU privacy regs and GDPR are actually super simple!” narrative. As someone living in Europe who watches the EUs best and brightest mostly go to work in consulting firms because the only growth industry in the EU is “companies spending money on regulatory compliance,” it pains my soul.

I think you're posting a strawman here. ePD is known to be bad (though for different reasons depending on who you ask), GDPR on the other hand _is_ easy to understand and follow.

Understanding the GDPR is quite easy, but following it can be quite hard if you're intending to violate people's privacy. If you read the GDPR because you want to enable the full Google Analytics suite without users even knowing, the GDPR will read like an absolute nightmare.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#256

Post by phito »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #211
mrweasel wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's area dependent, there are multiple shipping companies that have options for leaving package by the door step and rarely are things stolen. It's completely down to where you live.

I'm quite curious to know where this is a thing, and whether people actually pick that option. FWIW, I live in Paris and that's also an option sometimes. My sister lives in a fairly remote town in France, and they wouldn't dream of leaving a package unattended. It's not otherwise considered an "unsafe" or "rough" or whatever area.

Here in Belgium, by default they will bring it to the post office, but I've checked the option to leave it on the porch. There's a camera. Been just fine for years, in a suburb area.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#257

Post by rafaelmn »

fads_go wrote: post #250
rafaelmn wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats what every "support local" campaign boils down to - accept suboptimal deals because they are somehow more connected to you. I am glad to sell my services to the US and will buy their services, likewise for EU stuff if it is competitive. Besides this outrage at the US from EU perspective is mind-boggling, for the first time since I can remember US is moving away from imperialist global polices, and Europe is in…

Hard disagree. For me, "support local" means paying a little more for goods that are 10x better instead of commoditized crap fully optimized for enshitification.

Thats not support local, that is buy higher quality - and while demagogues try to conflate these two - it is very rarely the case in my experience. In cases where it is - you do not need buy local movements at all - they should be the default.

Buying local is usually more expensive because of economies of scale and comparative advantages. And they are often less scrutinized because of smaller reach. Same thing with "organic" produce actually being more dangerous to eat than processed food in terms of poisoning/bacteria.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#258

Post by fads_go »

Toutouxc wrote: post #195
paganel wrote: post #90

Is there any European alternative for Hacker News? And if yes, what's its URL/web address? Preferable in French or Italian, or maybe even German, which I wanted to learn for a long time and this would be a good enough motivation, because, and with all due respect to the Irish, having a continent-wide conversation in a language natively spoken by only ~5 million of its own people is not very conductive to the forming…

> having a continent-wide conversation in a language natively spoken by only ~5 million of its own people Did something happen to the UK?

Brexit

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#259

Post by whatever1 »

torpfactory wrote: post #252
whatever1 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out capital without borders ruins prices for scarce things (like housing) everywhere.

I’d argue most of the cost of scare housing is supply limits imposed by ridiculous over regulation of new construction. It’s not like we forgot how to build houses and apartments we just aren’t allowed to.

Nah, 2d space is finite. If you flood an “island” (desirable location) with demand then prices can only go up. We are building skyscrapers in manhattan for over a century so what? Rent is still $5k and $1000 per sq ft to buy.

Re: Go European: Discover European products and services

#260

Post by carlosjobim »

Galatians4_16 wrote: post #162
mrweasel wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't funding at that extreme level pretty much localized to a few areas in the US, like Silicon Valley/Bay Area, Portland/Seattle area, New York and maybe Colorado. It is probably easier than in the EU, but I don't think may start ups in Alabama are getting crazy funding. As for getting acquired, that's the same in the US. Either you goal is total dominance on your own or getting acquired by Alphabet, Meta, Microsof…

For a while there, funding in US was as simple as putting the right keywords into your proposal, and sending it to the right treasury office, getting it practically auto-approved. I hope they will align closer to the sensible European practices in the future.

Money is imaginary and made out of thin air. It makes sense to divert at least some of it to innovation.
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