Stop Generalizing About Europe
jonasbentzen.com
Stop Generalizing About Europe
1–10 of 369 posts
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#2I was curious so here are some population figures (from wikipedia)
Eurozone: 332,839,084
EU: 503,492,041
Europe: 739,165,030
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#3I was curious so here are some population figures (from wikipedia) Eurozone: 332,839,084 EU: 503,492,041 Europe: 739,165,030 So 45% of Europeans (66% of EU citizens) are in the Eurozone.
For those who don't know, the Eurozone is basically those 17 EU member states who use the Euro as their currency. The remaining 10 members of the EU use their own national currency.
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#4Hmm. Perhaps you could stop generalizing about people generalizing about Europe. Varsavsky has lived and built businesses in Madrid since 1995, so I think that his contrasts between the European market and the American market from the entrepreneur's point of view are really pretty trustworthy.
Your points about European diversity are quite valid, although I think they're beside the point. But your ad hominem "Oh my, another American is butting his nose into Europe" framing is less than persuasive.
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#5I could make an almost identical argument about the usage of terms like "Americans". The states and even cities themselves are all very different.
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#6Hmm. Perhaps you could stop generalizing about people generalizing about Europe. Varsavsky has lived and built businesses in Madrid since 1995, so I think that his contrasts between the European market and the American market from the entrepreneur's point of view are really pretty trustworthy. Your points about European diversity are quite valid, although I think they're beside the point. But your ad hominem "Oh my,…
Have you followed the HN discussion about Varsavskys post? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4968589 He takes his experience from Spain and UK and glosses it all over europe with some hearsay in between. Some of his statements may apply to spain and the UK, but pretty much all of them don't apply in germany - even the ones about germany. So it's not an ad hominem attack when the author says "another one that falls in the trap."
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#7I think you are pedantic about other people's semantics and not your own. E.G. when you say American, do you mean US citizens or people from the two continents of America? I think you mean the former. Just like they most likely mean Western Europe.
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#8I could make an almost identical argument about the usage of terms like "Americans". The states and even cities themselves are all very different.
The cultural differences among states do vary, but not to the degree countries in Europe do.
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#9Hmm. Perhaps you could stop generalizing about people generalizing about Europe. Varsavsky has lived and built businesses in Madrid since 1995, so I think that his contrasts between the European market and the American market from the entrepreneur's point of view are really pretty trustworthy. Your points about European diversity are quite valid, although I think they're beside the point. But your ad hominem "Oh my,…
> Varsavsky has lived and built businesses in Madrid since 1995
Which is exactly why I'm puzzled by some of his completely wrong statements about Europe.
Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe
#10I could make an almost identical argument about the usage of terms like "Americans". The states and even cities themselves are all very different.
Yes, indeed they are. But they all share a common language. It's a bit like Germany, Switzerland and Austria or even the german states themselves. We all share a common language so it we've seen the same movies, read the same media, etc. Certainly it's on a larger scale than the german states, but it's on a smaller scale than europe. If I travel 200 km to the east I'm in Poland. My GF comes from a village close to the belarussian border. I can pick the car, drive there in 6 hours or so and while it's Europe and even still EU, I can't even begin to talk to her parents or pretty much any other person in the village. I don't understand a single word they say, I have very little clue about how their life was and still is. If I drive 1000 km to the south I crossed at least 4 borders and heard at least as many languages on the way. So the proper comparison would be to compare texas to mexico or any middle american state.