EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants • Hacker News Board

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#31

Post by Slartie » Fri, May 03, 2019, 10:52 PM UTC

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #16

adventured wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, Europe has been behind the US in tech since WW2. The lead the US acquired in the following ~20 years has proven impossible to overcome. It spawned so many various advantages that compound and build on each other (to say nothing of the single market of enormous size). If they knew what they were doing, they'd start by massively increasing the pay for software developers across Western Europe. Software is why t…

That arc of software history is recognizable to me. There are excellent devs all over and pretty much every large company has divisions with european offices with devs. There's something about the business of starting large software based enterprises that seems to work better in the us though. Also, I think China is coming for the us software industry's dominance. If they can figure out how to get around the worry of…

That "something" is the huge, relatively homogeneous, english-speaking and thus very "international-by-default" single market.

It's the one and only actual moat that the US has over Europe when it comes to developing huge corporations in the winner-takes-all online markets. Everything else (like better VC situation, more attractive environment for international talent) is just a result of this original moat and would have just as well developed the other way round if this one advantage had been on the other side of the Atlantic.

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#32

Post by hungryhobo » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:17 PM UTC

andreilys wrote: post #29

A similar case can be made for Chinese tech companies, many of whom are actively complicit in human rights violations [1] [2]. Yet EU countries like Italy have no qualms about supporting the geopolitical aims of China, inevitably strengthening the position of the Chinese tech companies. Which should come to no surprise given their close ties to the communist party [3] [4]. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

[flagged]

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#33

Post by dmix » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:20 PM UTC

sadris wrote: post #22

ahartmetz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is really total rubbish. How could 1-2 year old regulations go back 30+ years to stifle the European "tech scene"? By the way, there is other technology than that which is used to sell advertising on the internet.

European hostility to business rights in general is a much larger elephant in the room.

Indeed anyone who has started a potentially global business quickly learns to avoid European markets for as long as possible.

Paying for lawyers, exploring utilizing local business networks to avoid headaches, and countless special edge cases is a great deterannce from offering services/products there... Let alone building actual companies and teams from there.

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#34

Post by andreilys » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:28 PM UTC

markdown wrote: post #30

andreilys wrote: post #29

A similar case can be made for Chinese tech companies, many of whom are actively complicit in human rights violations [1] [2]. Yet EU countries like Italy have no qualms about supporting the geopolitical aims of China, inevitably strengthening the position of the Chinese tech companies. Which should come to no surprise given their close ties to the communist party [3] [4]. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

> A similar case can be made for Chinese companies, many of whom are actively complicit in human rights violations Snowden showed us that US companies routinely do this, with FISA forcing them to participate just like the Chinese Govt does to Chinese companies. Also, US law only protects the human rights of US citizens, while non-citizens get their privacy invaded routinely (in contravention of Article 12 of the Univ…

US tech companies routinely aid the government in systematic ethnic cleansing [1]?

Also last time I remember there being a showdown on privacy between Apple and the FBI, Apple refused their request to side-load software that would allow them to crack a terrorists phone. I can't imagine Huawei being able to refuse such a request from the Communist party.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/ethn...

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#35

Post by djohnston » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:34 PM UTC

m0zg wrote: post #27

Mirioron wrote: post #4

Maybe the EU and European countries could've fostered an environment where tech companies could've been successful as well?

Venture capital and socialism (+overgrown, multi-level bureaucracies in the EU's case) can't really coexist. Nor can $200K+ US salaries coexist with $70K EU salaries for software engineers. So I wish Tusk good luck dealing with this one.

god the pay cut is so real :( .. hopefully the experience makes up for it, temporarily

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#36

Post by ga-vu » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:39 PM UTC

I'd be worried more by Chinese companies. At least you can sue US companies. You can't do the same with Chinese ones.

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#37

Post by ggm » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:39 PM UTC

hungryhobo wrote: post #32

andreilys wrote: post #29

A similar case can be made for Chinese tech companies, many of whom are actively complicit in human rights violations [1] [2]. Yet EU countries like Italy have no qualms about supporting the geopolitical aims of China, inevitably strengthening the position of the Chinese tech companies. Which should come to no surprise given their close ties to the communist party [3] [4]. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

[flagged]

A rebuttal which ignores the problem of moral relativism. Yes, it whataboutism. No,it doesn't mean it can be ignored. If our privilege is to critique the other and refuse to fix our own, we're all impoverished. Also, strong biblical roots to whataboutism in the mote/beam parable no?

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#38

Post by ggm » Fri, May 03, 2019, 11:40 PM UTC

Mirioron wrote: post #4

Maybe the EU and European countries could've fostered an environment where tech companies could've been successful as well?

Wolfson. Olivetti. The EU fosters an environment where tech companies can be successful and then they're crushed by American market dominance because murica.

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#39

Post by southerndrift » Sat, May 04, 2019, 12:30 AM UTC

Mirioron wrote: post #4

Maybe the EU and European countries could've fostered an environment where tech companies could've been successful as well?

In 1985, chancellor Kohl stopped the German network that was on track to deliver 100M fiber connections to every home until the year 2000 [1].

They could have fostered an environment for tech companies, but at least Germany chose do something else.

[1] https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Missing-Link-Der-Kam...

Re: EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants

#40

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 04, 2019, 12:39 AM UTC

m0zg wrote: post #27

Mirioron wrote: post #4

Maybe the EU and European countries could've fostered an environment where tech companies could've been successful as well?

Venture capital and socialism (+overgrown, multi-level bureaucracies in the EU's case) can't really coexist. Nor can $200K+ US salaries coexist with $70K EU salaries for software engineers. So I wish Tusk good luck dealing with this one.

[deleted]