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Stop Generalizing About Europe

jonasbentzen.com

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Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#141

Post by alexchamberlain »

nhebb wrote: post #54

I think a lot of us need to admit that the author is right. I, for one, do generalize about Europe. I think of social democracies with high taxes. I think of arcane rules and regulations to start and run a business. And most of all, I limit the term "Europe" to include about 20 of the 50 European countries. I will never think of Russia as a European country. If I entered a contest and won a vacation to "Europe" - and…

Most British people would struggle to tell you the difference between Great Britain and the UK.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#142

Post by [deleted] »

rmc wrote: post #89
PoliticsJunkie wrote: post #53

Created an account just to state this: tech people please don't go into discussing politics / economics. Brits want to exit EU because of wars in the past? This is ridiculous! What about the real reasons: 1. Britain has 70% of its laws created by the EU by burocrats who were never voted into the office and can't be voted out of the office: Barroso (President of the European Commission) and Von Rumpoy (whatever his na…

2 or 3 of the countries in the UK are not "Anglo-Saxon" countries, but would be "Celtic" countries. :P Additionally the UK does elect and choose EU legislators, in the European Parliament & Council of Minsiters, European Commission, etc. etc.

[deleted]

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#143

Post by jonascopenhagen »

grego wrote: post #95
jonascopenhagen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Making generalizations is a wonderful property of the human brain. Without that we'd all be lost in the fractal complexity of everyday detail. Sure - the problem is when the generalizations are so broad as to become complete falsehoods. If I went to Upper East Side in New York and concluded that Americans are extremely wealthy persons who live in townhouses, I would be incorrect.

In my opinion Varsavsky's blog post was ok. Sure it mostly covered Spain and France, but that's where he's worked at. It conveyed actual experience from one person's perspective. Some responsibility always lies with the reader: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_reading

That's like saying that it's alright if I write a blog post about how all Americans drive Chevrolets, and then it's up to the reader to figure out the truth by applying critical reading.

While the reader should apply critical reading, the writer should certainly make sure his facts are straight.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#145

Post by walshemj »

elebertus wrote: post #84
loxs wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

They're similar in quantifiable traits (language, currency, same federal government). Culture, how individuals (often businesses) interact are much different. The south as a whole is much different than the west coast, and somewhat the midwest.

but even comparing quite different states in the US they are more similar than the extremes of the EU you get in practice - arguably the expansion was botched and a lot of entrants came in before they had converged.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#146

Post by VeejayRampay »

jonascopenhagen wrote: post #108
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…

> Only some of the LARGEST countries, for a total of 332 million people. Not to mention that he did say "most". 332 million is less than half of Europe's population. That's not "most of Europe" by any stretch. > It's not like someone will go to invest blindly to the _geographic region_ that is Europe. He will most likely go to what is called Western Europe, or the EU. Even Western Europe has huge differences in buyin…

If you're going to base all your thing on a totally unrealistic vision of Europe then yeah, your points stand.

But so we're clear, all the points the original article was making was about Europe as a an economic entity, most likely not including the likes of Ruasia and Kazakhstan (which you're obviously not afraid to do to reach that quite ludicrous and irrelevant figure of 750+ million people).

At this rate you might as well include all of Africa and Asia in Europe too.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#147

Post by lispm »

sbmassey wrote: post #115
lispm wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Germany has always been goods producer. UK has always been a trading nation Yeah, why has the UK then stopped trading? Btw., I live in a German Hansestadt, which for centuries has been trading with all the known world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League The UK can't trade with the US? Haha, what a joke. Let's face it: the UK has focused on its financial 'industry' and has sold products of questionable qu…

The Hanseatic league stretched from England to Novgorod, and highlights the strong need for small independent sovereign city states, rather than top-heavy bureaucracies like the EU. The EU is an attempt by the European political classes to copy all the worst parts of the US political system, while ignoring the traditions of political liberty that (used to) make the US actually work. Having said that, I am hopeful tha…

> The Hanseatic league stretched from England to Novgorod

The Hansa Teutonica had its capital in Lübeck.

One possible future of the EU is a union of regions, not nations. The EU will take over much of what the current nations think they are.

> I am hopeful that once the EU finally collapses

Neither you nor I will see the EU collapse. Just the opposite. It might even expand.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#148

Post by xradionut »

rmc wrote: post #43
outside1234 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But they all share a common language" Ha! You haven't been to Watsonville, California or just about anywhere along the border with Mexico, have you?

Right, so that's 2 languages (English & Spanish). There are currently 23 offical working languages in the EU. And I'm sure if you live in Watsonville, California, you can get your tax forms in English, right? This is definitly not the case within the whole of the EU and the EU offical languages. (e.g. someone in Ireland could not get their tax forms in Swedish).

There's way more than two languages: http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/

If you live in a larger urban area in the US, odds are that you can encounter several dozen languages in a day.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#149

Post by aGHz »

gyardley wrote: post #96
loxs wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Your ignorance of the respective areas is showing. It's hard to talk about a common culture between California and Louisiana when neither California nor Louisiana has a common internal culture. In Louisiana, spend some time in Houma, and then some time in Shreveport. Louisiana has a Cajun-dominated region and a region that's very much part of the Old South, and they're not much alike. In California, spend some time i…

He wasn't talking about culture, all his examples are commercial.

Re: Stop Generalizing About Europe

#150

Post by benatkin »

pelle wrote: post #138
benatkin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. We're talking about Western Europe, which doesn't include Scandinavia, which is where the author's from. And I don't think there's a conspiracy involved, I think it's just because that's where the largest economies in the area are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin... The author has visited Western Europe but many Americans have too.

I'm from Denmark and grew up knowing that we and the rest of Scandinavia is part of Western Europe.

Yes, and I grew up in the town where Pluto was discovered. I present to you the United Nations geoscheme for Europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_geoscheme_for_Eu...
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