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How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

lectronz.com

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Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#471

Post by mrguyorama »

caseysoftware wrote: post #165
scns wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I'm still caught off guard when hearing them say some things nonchalantly that would get them fired in the US. I'm intruiged, can you give an example?

Not sure if it's a pattern but when I interviewed with an EU company recently, they explicitly asked if I was married and if I had kids. They explained it as they had a "European mindset towards weekends and holidays" and they expected me to NOT be online. I was fine with the mindset but never expected to get those questions in an interview, as it'd be illegal in the States.

It had to be made illegal to ask in the states, because so many employers used that information in an adversarial way.

In places that don't have such a history, there's no reason for it to be taboo.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#472

Post by philipallstar »

radicalbyte wrote: post #372
philipallstar wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobbyists don't do this. Regulators/lawmakers need to be corrupt and/or incompetent for lobbying to do this.

The lawmakers are: in the EU you have a block of right-wing parties. The large part are funded by large companies and make laws which favour them. Same thing as in the US. There are other right-wing (and left-wing) blocks who are funded by the Kremlin and Kremlin-supporters who just try to break things. At the EC they're not corrupt, they try their best, but they're often given bad advice and are themselves not exper…

> a block of right-wing parties. The large part are funded by large companies and make laws which favour them. Same thing as in the US.

You need to be mad to think it's the right wing parties in the US who get the most funding. E.g. [0]

> The Biden—now Harris—campaign committee raised $997.2 million and Trump’s campaign committee raised $388 million in total between Jan. 2023 and Oct. 16, 2024, the most recent date for which Federal Election Commission filings are available

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/11/04/trump-v...

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#474

Post by kilpikaarna »

Jskewel wrote: post #111

PPWR is an EU catastrophe. Firstly for the reasons outlined in the article: it essentially makes being a micro/small business in the EU impossible, if your market is other EU countries. Secondly because it validates insidious populist views that the EU institution is useless and incompetent at a fundamental level. The legislation is so ABSURDIST that the EU have actually asked companies to ignore the law that they ju…

> The legislation is so ABSURDIST that the EU have actually asked companies to ignore the law that they just implemented. I can assure you it is difficult to ignore a law that comes with a €200000 fine for non-compliance.

That's the commission telling small businesses that please don't stop selling in the EU and suggesting member states should use common sense. Unfortunately, as with all EU directives the implementation and enforcement is up to the member states, and especially certain northern countries really love their bureaucrats leaving common sense at home in the morning and sticking to the exact letter of the law. The 200000 EUR fine is Germany specific I think, obviously a prime candidate here.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#476

Post by maxerickson »

george_max wrote: post #427

I run a small hardware startup, InfiShark Tech -- we sell affordable battery-powered cybersecurity hardware worldwide. Europe has been by far the hardest market for us. The costs in this article are understated for products like ours. This is not just for packaging -- they have separate compliance schemes for electronics (WEEE). If selling products with batteries, you must comply with separate battery regulations. If…

What drove you to have an authorized representative in every country? Or is it a single entity charging for services on a per country basis?

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#477

Post by nonethewiser »

latexr wrote: post #463
nonethewiser wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small coffee shops prove the point. It's not worth it to invest for growth.

There is a big difference between being unable to grow and being uninterested in it. I sincerely doubt most people open a small coffee shop dreaming of expansion. Small coffee shop owners don’t want to be Starbucks. Being small and wanting to stay small is not a failure.

Desire is irrelevant. Small European coffee shops can’t become starbucks.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#478

Post by skylurk »

Aurornis wrote: post #265
greenraven wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's completely missed that small entrepreneurs may also want to take part This is by design. It’s the same all over the world. The wealthy are not going to just let you compete

It is not the same all over the world. Starting a small company in the US is a breeze compared to what I’ve watched peers in the EU fight against.

Back in college (USA) friends would spin up LLCs for the summer just to buy mowers or vans to do yard work. They would hire all the students who didn't get summer jobs. Those hired students would make about 3x a STEM intern makes in western europe today.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#479

Post by fakedang »

petra wrote: post #425
nemomarx wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does a Californian company compete with a company in Missouri that has lower labor costs and less overhead/ regulation? They seem to manage this just fine, but it's a pretty similar scenario. You could also push for standardized business costs and regulations eu wide ofc to help.

The Californian company probably opens their new plant in Missouri, so now it's not exactly a Californian company.

That's the entire point - the Californian company leaves the higher-value R&D jobs in California, while it outsources the lower-value but still necessary manufacturing jobs/data warehousing jobs to Missouri. Both places benefit, because ultimately the union benefits as a whole from the distribution of productivity.

If you concentrated all manufacturing around just a few spots, you end up in a situation like India - inland states with resources get stripped of their resources while all the companies are based in coastal metropolises with port facilities.

One could also go the other way, like China, and let the states compete between themselves for manufacturing prowess, but you need a central planning committee to ensure that the competing provinces still coordinate and work to complement each other. Easier in China, not so much in the EU.

The EU single market is a sorry joke.

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