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Stop Generalizing About Europe

jonasbentzen.com

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Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#121

Post by Vivtek »

jacquesm wrote: post #87
Vivtek wrote: post #4

Hmm. 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,…

> his contrasts between the European market and the American market from the entrepreneur's point of view are really pretty trustworthy. They're not. And I've run businesses in lots of different countries as well. Martin is on the ball when it comes to comparing Spain the US, but his contrasts between the European and the American market from the entrepreneurs point of view are way off the mark. He should have simply…

I just took it as his contrast between SV entrepreneural attitudes and the reality of the labor market and general attitudes in Europe, and it agrees with what I see here, because I live in Budapest.

But man do I not want to argue about it. I mostly just didn't like OP's style of argument, to be honest, and I did like Varsavsky's post, essentially because it highlighted the four points you highlight here.

I did wonder whether he was American; his English is a little odd.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#122

Post by kamjam »

milesskorpen wrote: post #82
jonascopenhagen wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When Americans talk about "Europe", they're generally talking about Western Europe, not Eastern, and are excluding the UK too. This doesn't hold true for any of the Americans I've met (and I've met a lot). Also, one of the countries Martin Varsavsky mentions in his examples is actually the UK. If it were true that the American definition of Europe doesn't include Eastern Europe, what part of the world do the many A…

I think most Americans would break the European continent into "Europe" (aka continental W. Europe), the UK, East Europe, and Russia. Even if rounded up, there is a clear distinction between Europe (W. Europe + UK) and East Europe (E Europe + Russia) which probably has something to do with Cold War borders and allies.

I think most Americans would break the European continent into "Europe" (aka continental W. Europe), the UK, East Europe, and Russia.

I think you're over generalizing now in thinking that most Americans know any other nations exist outside of America!

I don't think I have ever met anyone though that doesn't think of the UK as part of Europe. Note there is a very clear distinction between Europe and the European Union. UK is part of both, we are not part of the Euro$ experiment though. See, difficult to generalize already!

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#123

Post by mkr-hn »

loxs wrote: post #77
hnriot wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Louisiana is very different to California too, but that doesn't mean you can't refer to America as a general entity. Bulgaria is a beautiful country, I visited it while living in Romania. Of course all the Eastern European countries like Bulgarian, Romania, Slovakia/Czech, Serbia etc are all different, but also very alike.

Well, we are going deep down the rabbit hole now :). Please excuse me if I say lots of stupid things. How far apart are Louisiana and California? How far apart are Romania and Bulgaria? Yet, the two USA states share the same language (at least on official level), the same currency and the same "american" culture. Neither of these is true for BG and RO. And we are neighbours, mind that. As an added "benefit", we have…

Surface similarities are a poor measure of homogeneity.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#124

Post by jjio »

antiterra wrote: post #64
kmfrk wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like "America" is a synecdoche for "The United States". :) It depends on how the words are used; "Africa" to describe an area larger than a lot of continents combined, when you only mean a few countries - or just one! - is borderline offensive, though.

America is the name of the country. It's The United States of America, like the Federal Republic of Germany or The People's Republic of China, etc.

America/Americas is the entire land mass containing all North American countries and South American countries. It's just also slang for "The United States of America".

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#125

Post by kamjam »

pretoriusB wrote: post #67

Well, I'm a European myself, but the corrections sounds a little on the pedantic side: > "Most of Europe has the euro as a common currency" -- Only 17 of Europe's 50 countries use the Euro. Yes. Only some of the LARGEST countries, for a total of 332 million people. Not to mention that he did say "most". > "Europe is great for an American tech entrepreneur because wealth is better distributed" The difference between t…

It's as if someone talked about investing in the US, and someone felt obliged to blog about the differences between Illinois and New York and rural Idaho, Mississippi, Alabama and South Dakota.

I think he covered that point pretty well to be honest, you know, in the paragraph that starts off:

You may say, "Well, this is like the US with its different states." I would disagree because, while there is certainly a noticable difference between, say, New York City and a rural Mississippian town...

I agree that for generalized investment purposes you can most likely leave off former USSR states, but the genralisation that UK isn't part of the Europe talk is a little crazy. Either way, you'd be a fool to do any kind of business solely relying on some internet blog post.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#126

Post by [deleted] »

crazygringo wrote: post #34

This post feels awfully pedantic. While it may not be clear to non-Americans, when Americans talk about "Europe", they're generally talking about Western Europe, not Eastern, and are excluding the UK too. They almost certainly aren't including Russia. (Just like when Americans talk about Asia, they aren't usually thinking of India.) Of course, that's geographically inaccurate -- but it's what we usually mean. The Eur…

[deleted]

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#128

Post by edj »

crazygringo wrote: post #34

This post feels awfully pedantic. While it may not be clear to non-Americans, when Americans talk about "Europe", they're generally talking about Western Europe, not Eastern, and are excluding the UK too. They almost certainly aren't including Russia. (Just like when Americans talk about Asia, they aren't usually thinking of India.) Of course, that's geographically inaccurate -- but it's what we usually mean. The Eur…

when Americans talk about "Europe", they're generally talking about Western Europe, not Eastern, and are excluding the UK too. They almost certainly aren't including Russia.

Likewise, most people across the world seem to use "American" and "U.S. citizen" interchangeably, even though Canada and Brazil, for example, are in the Americas, making Canadians and Brazilians American, as well.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#129

Post by xradionut »

Xylakant wrote: post #10
mbell wrote: post #5

I 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 th…

"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."

If I drive 1000 km to the southwest, I'm still in Texas... :) If I wish to drive to the nearest ski resort, I spend most of the drive time getting across the damn state! If I want to hear about 40 different languages, I just go to the nearest shopping mall or to the cafe in the next building.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#130

Post by ErrantX »

crazygringo wrote: post #34

This post feels awfully pedantic. While it may not be clear to non-Americans, when Americans talk about "Europe", they're generally talking about Western Europe, not Eastern, and are excluding the UK too. They almost certainly aren't including Russia. (Just like when Americans talk about Asia, they aren't usually thinking of India.) Of course, that's geographically inaccurate -- but it's what we usually mean. The Eur…

Even "Western Europe" has a range of very different cultures.
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