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Dear Europe, please wake up

klinger.io

211–220 of 323 posts

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flipside is your company can't just fire you at will, which is rather nice in this day and age.

The solution to people’s income instability is government subsidy. Levying the costs of this risk on individual businesses both entrenches existing large players and disincentivizes new businesses.

The problem is that it doesn't matter who pays the cost. Let's say I live in the US where the social safety net isn't large and companies can fire me at will. Let's say I'm also competent and driven. Logically I focus on money because having a large bank account is the only safety net I can ever get. Since everyone understands the lack of a safety net trying to get large amounts of money is socially acceptable. Now lets' say I got lucky and never had to use that safety net but until one day I decide to start a business which means I will make 0 income for a year. Now I have money to cover my expenses as I try my hand at running a business. But given a strong safety net it'd be illogical to keep that much money around unless you're paranoid. You enjoy life, go on vacations, etc.

Granted, the hoarding of money and drive to greater wealth eventually leads to a capitalistic dystopias with massive wealth inequality. But you get lots of startups!

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#212
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Eastern and Central European countries have always felt much more dynamic and open to work hard. Yet as soon as they try to take advantage of their position (via e.g. tax breaks) they'll get punished (eg 15% corporate tax rate, what happened to Ireland, Cyprus). Not being a single economy truly prevents competition for capital. So old money stays put where it is , new money is not allowed.

Well, Cyprus absolutely needed to be cracked down (lots of shady shit going on there), but Ireland's absolutely gotten the short end of the stick, and I won't be surprised if something similar happens to Poland or Romania in a couple years.

Can you elaborate please? What happened to Ireland?

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#213

So many things here. Lets talk pay, US tech workers, lets just say Sr SWE and up, and lets look at SF as the author uses this as a focal point. Salary is roughly $300-400k a year(in SF FANGish company), in Europe or England its about half of that, and maybe even less. I know as I have family I married into that points out this fact, the best workers all go over to the US and make large salaries over there at US tech…

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Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#214

The problem with the EU wide Inc, is who gets the tax revenue? Is it the country you live in or the country where most of your customers are based in? What if your customers all live outside the EU? France is never going to accept that you live in France but your business pays it's taxes in Germany or vice versa. Also I don't agree with the author's take that Europe is not risk averse. It is risk averse. I tried to o…

> The problem with the EU wide Inc, is who gets the tax revenue?

Every country proportional to the profit they generate and the tax rate they set?

Companies overall EU profit $100M: - France $30M profit taxed at 20% = $6M - Germany $50M profit taxed at 25% = $12.5M - ...

Seems like it "just" needs an accounting system that works across the EU.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#215
post #97

Why should Europe care where they are amongst this myopic ranking of “best tech hub”? Western Europe is a great place to live, raise a family, and retire. None of the tech hub countries are even remotely comparable to Europe in this sense. If there are people in Europe who want to work in a high growth industry that desperately, they can move to USA or China.

Because the world doesn't stand still. If you're stagnating then others pass you by. Why stagnate now? Why not the economy of the 60s? 70s? 80s? Today life is significantly better than back then. If Europe stagnates even more then we will still be in the same place in a few decades as we are now.

Europe is not stagnating, its economy is just developing slower than in the US.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#216

As an EU citizen in middle of Europe (Czechia) I see two major problems. - Free market is crippled by EU economical politics. Basically, EU is trying to implement centrally planned economics and fund many useless things by grants. About half of grants (in my country) going to ideology driven nonprofit segment. Many EU citizens are very angry about wasting our money. Also, our government is not able to provide cheap e…

Tomorrow you will be paid to use energy if you're on the spot market.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#217

As an EU citizen in middle of Europe (Czechia) I see two major problems. - Free market is crippled by EU economical politics. Basically, EU is trying to implement centrally planned economics and fund many useless things by grants. About half of grants (in my country) going to ideology driven nonprofit segment. Many EU citizens are very angry about wasting our money. Also, our government is not able to provide cheap e…

I don't think those are the main issues. There's tons of money wasted as well as bullshit laws in the US (hell, their tax code is so complex that it famously practically requires software to fill out a tax return form), but it doesn't stop their economy from quickly growing.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#218
post #159
post #97

Why should Europe care where they are amongst this myopic ranking of “best tech hub”? Western Europe is a great place to live, raise a family, and retire. None of the tech hub countries are even remotely comparable to Europe in this sense. If there are people in Europe who want to work in a high growth industry that desperately, they can move to USA or China.

Europeans live the way they do because of unbelievable amounts of wealth and innovation accumulated through centuries which is being spent. None of that is guaranteed in a failing , aging europe. It's not food-safe, nor energy-safe. Not thinking about a sustainable future is fatally myopic

I disagree. Basically all Europe were in shambles 80 years ago, Communism was destroyed only 30 years ago. We still 4 wars in the last 30 years in Europe.

The accumulated wealth is long gone.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#219
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to admit I raised an eyebrow at Greece being near the top of the list. That's going against stereotype hard.

Stereotypes aren't necessarily true. There's for example a stereotype about Mexicans being lazy, but anyone who's actually taken the time to look at the statistics - and gotten to know any number of Mexicans, for that matter - knows that to be a complete fabrication.

The funniest thing about that stereotype is how can they simultaneously be lazy, yet also be taking all our jobs?

Stereotypes are just stupid and lazy thinking.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In SF you frequently hear big tech people talking how hard they work, while they queue 30mins for a coffee at Blue Bottle and chitchatting there for another 20mins. Might be true for an established rest and vest company or position like sales or marketing, but the article seems to be wanting EU to be easier for startups. Not a single startup has that culture, especially when you’re building it from the ground up. Y…

Also couched in the article: > Americans love their hero-arcs so much that people manage to spin anything into a “coming from nothing story” – even if they got their first investments from their uncle and worked for free in the “garage” of their parents multi-million-dollar house in Palo Alto.

It's hard to argue against the fact that access to opportunities is not evenly distributed across different states.
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