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Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

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Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#341

Post by moooo99 »

whiplash451 wrote: post #291
OvbiousError wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signalling? Talks about investing 800 billion in the military industry across the EU would have been unthinkable 4 months ago. Now they're proceeding at a speed that is staggering when you see how long these talks/processes normally take. EU cloud is certainly much discussed, and more than that. Holland for instance voted and accepted a resolution last week for more digital sovereignty. This doesn't mean we'll have a…

It's unclear how this EU momentum will stand the test of time, even if the war in Ukraine were to stop quickly. Where do these 800 bn really come from, how fast they will transform into R&D and products, how much the industrial status quo is going to change? These are hard questions that remain unanswered.

> It's unclear how this EU momentum will stand the test of time, even if the war in Ukraine were to stop quickly.

I don’t think it really is unclear. The war in Ukraine served as an initial trigger that did spark some notesble changes. But the trump administration even more so. Ask the former UdSSR and Warsaw pact states. They were sounding the alarm bells for a long time and don’t appear to be willing to take any chances going forward.

> Where do these 800 bn really come from,

Government deficit.

> how fast they will transform into R&D and products

R&D is not really the issue. While there are some notable exceptions, the European defense industry has lots of very capable system that match or exceed the capabilities of US counterparts. The problem is primarily production capacity.

And production capacity is a problem that is relatively easily solved by throwing money at it and committing to long term purchases.

The main risk is that states want to ensure that if they want to spend more, they also get proportionally more. With production capacity being a bottleneck, increased spending could lead to inflationary pricing.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#342

Post by ttyprintk »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #296
jjevanoorschot wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An important distinction is that US and EU interests aligned on many important areas up until recently. So it was less of a subservient relationship, and more of a mutually beneficial one. Now that the US wants to turn it into a subservient relationship, the EU is naturally looking for other options.

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Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#343

Post by flowerthoughts »

csomar wrote: post #185
iammjm wrote: post #118

Europeans were perfectly happy to buy American tech und military exports, thus earning U.S. money and making EU technologically and politically dependent from the U.S. - it really was perfect for the U.S. But the US decided that it was actually a BAD DEAL and they wanted to extort even more money and dependence from EU. So now EU is investing in their own tech and military, thus reducing the amount of money US is get…

> hus forcing EU to invest in their own tech & military, thus becoming a competitor to the US products. Not sure how you made the jump here. EU is signalling increased military spending but there isn't really much talk about tech (beyond reddit-like enthusiasm which leads nowhere); which is funny because the top referrals for this site are .. american companies themselves. That being said, increased spending doesn't…

The EU started Deep Tech funding programs 2-3 years ago.

They're supposedly spending €1.4B this year, up by 17% from last.

https://eic.ec.europa.eu/news/european-innovation-council-in...

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#344

Post by pjmlp »

rvba wrote: post #227
pjmlp wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the overview, naturally tarifs might change that, see Canada, no US products any longer on big chains.

Coca cola is bottled locally. It does not make any sense to move water, sugar, nor the syroup. Probably they move a bit of their secret sauce, but rest is probably sourced locally. So impact of tariffs on coke in Germany is mininal. During WW2 german bottlers missed some ingredients so they've started making Fanta.

The problem is not the source, rather the company origin.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#345

Post by vladimirralev »

iammjm wrote: post #118

Europeans were perfectly happy to buy American tech und military exports, thus earning U.S. money and making EU technologically and politically dependent from the U.S. - it really was perfect for the U.S. But the US decided that it was actually a BAD DEAL and they wanted to extort even more money and dependence from EU. So now EU is investing in their own tech and military, thus reducing the amount of money US is get…

Predicating the argument on a unified EU is a mistake. US was a good ally in NATO, certainly better than most EU countries. If this split can occur between US and "EU", it's almost certain a similar split will occur within the "EU" itself, and quite soon. Romania is already leaning this way. But France and Holland also trending this way.

EU politicians right now are trying to use this moment to unify the EU more and to justify more spending, but they way they steer the narrative is very awkward. They want to spend but only some regions will benefit from this spending as it stands and the others will only pay the bill further causing division.

Private companies in EU face a different problem - switching away from industry leading vendors makes them less competitive. We will have to see how this plays out.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#346

Post by tored »

tgaj wrote: post #330
tored wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What Trump did was to pull out the rug under the European establishment, which have all built their political existence on the transatlantic cooperation. Who is to blame? European establishment wants of course the citizens of Europe to blame Trump and not them for not preparing for this eventuality. But the truth is that almost all of them are responsible for neglecting what is the best interest of Europe. Thus they…

Hard times are ahead if nations start to care only about their best interest and not about what is the best interest of the whole world.

Globalization died with Covid when it became obvious that the old order no longer functioned in a world with lockdowns and pandemics, it disrupted the entire supply chain.

Then globalization died a second time with the Russia’s war in Ukraine, with the emergence of BRICS and the consequences of sanctions and the breakdown of the global monetary system.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#347

Post by pjmlp »

mixermachine wrote: post #229
pjmlp wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the overview, naturally tarifs might change that, see Canada, no US products any longer on big chains.

Coca-Cola is mostly produced locally. Atleast the mixing of Sirup and bottling is. I personally don't know if they ship their sirup around the world.

Company origin is what matters, people boycoyting US products don't care where the companies source them from.

See the US companies trying the "built in Canada" marketing.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#348

Post by InsideOutSanta »

mrweasel wrote: post #324
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe any Western European search companies have their own search index, and Ecosia seems to currently have the best chance of growing into a real vertically integrated search provider, so I'm using them.

Mojeek (UK-based) does apparently have their own index. The results are interesting, they aren't bad, just different. Localized search isn't great, but it might be perfectly fine if you're in the UK.

That's awesome. How have I never heard of them? After a few tests, the search results seem good, so I'm provisionally switching to them now.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#349

Post by moooo99 »

tyteen4a03 wrote: post #131
pjmlp wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how much it gets consumed, but many places in Germany rather sell Fritz-Kola only.

Even before everything happened I prefer to get Fritz Cola in German supermarkets because I can get Coca Cola literally anywhere else in the world. If only they would sell 0.5L glass bottles with screwtops more / start selling 0.33l Aluminium cans, I would switch over entirely.

Fritz Cola is cool, but it is unreasonably expensive. Their biggest bottle size is 0.5L and regularly costs like 1,60€.

Recently got back to drinking Afri cola. Tastes great (particularly their zero product) and is line 1,50€/L which is relatively reasonable.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#350

Post by dcow »

DFHippie wrote: post #306
Ragnarork wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for saying that. I see this divide all the time, and I can't bear seeing this used time and time again to make the rural vs. the urban populations angry at each other, which in the end only detracts from trying to see how to make everything work together. I wish we'd be smarter and stopped just being condescending towards the other group. The only ones actively benefitting from this divide are not well-inte…

One elaboration on your point: the rural and urban populations aren't mirrors of each other. The urban population generally ignores the rural population. The rural population pays attention to (a select subset of) what is happening in the city. I think this is an inevitable consequence of population size and density. People are interested in people. The people who generate new culture -- who attract the interest of o…

I appreciate your insight but this explanation seems overly simplified (or needlessly complicated). It’s very possible that the demagogues are seen for what they are irrespective of city vs country and people across the board don’t like having demagogues in power. You also can’t wash the city people clean for all the frankly hate and vitriol they spew at country folks. It’s not just demagogues.
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