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Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

economist.com

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Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#631

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

refurb wrote: post #554
j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it nice that a large part of the European economy consists of stuff helping people (the "state activities" you mention) vs. the large part of the US economy that consists of hurting people?

Dude, all you’ve done is pepper this post with empty rhetoric and unsubstantiated claims. If you’re interested in an actual debate based on facts, great, otherwise you’re just adding noise.

Yeah.

Its funny how I am always kind of really relieved to come back from the US to Europe. I know there's no guns around in a bar, I know all my friend can see a doctor when they feel sick, and hey, I don't need to ask someone to pick me up from the airport because there's public transportation. And I can switch on the TV and see boobs!

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#632

Post by varjag »

j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #630
varjag wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an Eastern European immigrant in Norway, stuff your attitude where it makes you warm.

I don't follow ... what does that have to do with Nazis being a part of or employed by the US government? And I stand by my point that the big companies that the article is about don't have too much diversity on the higher levels.

Of course you don't follow, because what you wrote was a non sequitur.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#633

Post by QuesnayJr »

pjc50 wrote: post #317
onion2k wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll end up with fewer businesses, but the ones that won't get started are the ones people aren't really willing to put effort in to starting. You'll only really lose the easy "fill in a form and off you go" businesses. I don't imagine that's much of a loss. If someone has an idea, and a real drive to start, then they can start pretty much anywhere, even if it isn't super simple to register a company. So, really, m…

Every cost causes a difference at the margin. Businesses are fragile when small. And most of these costs are just economic dead weight, ridiculous paper proof of work schemes where all you're really proving is that you've wasted a certain amount of time and money. If I were to identify one big flaw, it would be that EU governments don't recognize that small businesses can't do regulatory compliance as much, so they s…

Don't they recognize that, with somewhat perverse consequences? I remember reading there is a cliff in compliance in France where if you hit 50 employees additional regulations kick in, so companies are motivated to stay at 49.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#634

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #334
satellite2 wrote: post #319

This article is truly bizarre. The main point it makes is that the top 500 US companies grew faster than the top 500 European ones in the last decade or so. But then it quickly mention, without any further analysis, that both their GDP actually grew at a similar pace. So the entire EU economy grew at the same speed than the US one but not its 500 bigger companies. So all else being equals it means that the smaller US…

> the entire EU economy grew at the same speed than the US one but not its 500 bigger companies This is literally the article’s point. Europe and the U.S. grew similarly. The U.S. and China produced more large companies. (The Continent’s larger companies also being older than the other two’s.) > supposedly more investment in R&D Not supposedly, factually. The article explicitly states this. It’s the Economist; if you…

[deleted]

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#635

Post by notahacker »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #616
sgt wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting you should note anti-immigration tendencies. I believe those tendencies are fueled by ridiculously liberal immigration laws that essentially allows far too many asylum seekers into Europe. That's why you now see ghettos and zones where the police don't go in France, Sweden and even UK. I am not against immigration but I think Europe should be seriously reconsidering non-western immigration as it will…

> That's why you now see ghettos and zones where the police don't go in France, Sweden and even UK. Please name me one place in the UK where police don’t go. This is exactly the same 5 year old BS that we heard from Trump times. Even the USA ambassador was embarrassed and grilled by the journalist in the Netherlands to provide one example of “politicians being burned” and “no-go zones” in the Netherlands. https://you…

tbf, the British press fuels this nonsense. In recent weeks the Daily Mail produced one article that suggested a particular (84% white) suburb was a "no go area" for white people, and another that suggested it was a "posh and leafy suburb" that was top of the list for house hunters nationwide :-/

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#636

Post by iso1210 »

knolan wrote: post #268
mattlondon wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes this is something I have been really surprised by too - people spending 50,60,70+ USD a month on a mobile service. WTF? Even in the UK there are numerous providers (some virtual networks I admit but they still price differently) and you can get perfectly decent service for less than 10GBP (typically unlimited calls, but data is the thing you pay for now, so 5GBP might get you 500mb of data 10GBP gets you 2gb a mo…

I haven’t had data allowances that low in years. I pay €10 per month for an ‘unlimited’ SIM only plan. The fair usage limit is 120GB per month.

There's providers with unlimited data in the UK for £15/month, 10-15G range is £4-5/month

usmobile.com say 12G is $20/month - about 3 times the price of the UK, but I don't trust US prices as whenever I buy anything in the US the price balloons at checkout with extra taxes and fees and tips and whatever, which aren't advertised, but aren't optional.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#637

Post by simonh »

Applejinx wrote: post #585
simonh wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's about the distribution of economic activity between large and small businesses. It's got nothing to do with wealth distribution between individuals. All that the Economist is pointing out is that there are some businesses in which you have to have massive scale to be competitive. In those specific businesses, you either scale up or you can't compete at all. Europe is giving up competing in those areas.

Competitive is not the same thing as innovative. Innovative is the real disruptor. We forget this at our peril.

Oh sure, but as you say they're not the same thing. To disrupt at scale you need to be able to grow to that scale. There are too many barriers to doing this in Europe.

I do think Europe has many advantages the US and China don't have, it's not like being able to develop massive scale enterprises is the be-all and end-all of economics, but it is self-limiting in some important ways.

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#638

Post by cube2222 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #512
ativzzz wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A very US mindset. I live in the US and I completely disagree with your outlook on life. Great food with friends, or a vacation with family provides so much more satisfaction to me than anything a job could provide. The only thing a job provides that those things can't is money. I'm not so egotistical to think that I'm special and not easily replaceable. I'm no Steve Jobs or Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. I'm just…

> Great food with friends, or a vacation with family provides so much more satisfaction to me than anything a job could provide. But a better job, with more money, more time off, more relaxed conditions, lets you get more of these things you say you want. Also look at the current pandemic. Due to their work ethic and research power the US has been able to vaccinate their people so they can enjoy life again while much…

Mentioning US research power here when the main vaccine being used - Pfizer - was developed in German BioNTech is quite weird.

If you look at vaccination percentages[0] you'll also see that US and Europe are very close in that regard. I'm in my twenties in Poland and already got my second vaccine (yes, also Pfizer).

As to the bigger discussion at hand, I don't see how taking vacations is contradictory to ambition and being driven to create something great. I don't like taking 4-week at a time vacations, but definitely want to have ~35 days off yearly, even though I really like my work and put a lot of effort into it.

Creativity and motivation go out the window when I'm overworked and burned out.

[0]: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#639

Post by developer93 »

kpmah wrote: post #248
StreamBright wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who never experienced state run healthcare it sounds like an amazing idea. It is free! It is for all! Amazing. I usually ask my friends from the US how much do they like the service at DMV. Usually they hate it. So you want your healthcare to be run as DMV? Healthcare is great when you have a choice. The private healthcare industry is booming in Easter Europe now because there are people who can afford it.…

The NHS is one of the most efficient health systems in the world.

Although it's been underfunded for decades now. But even the private healthcare in UK is waaay more affordable than in US. The free healthcare creates a price anchor (because if you can't afford it you can have the less shiny but free version, and still not die)

Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?

#640

Post by anoncake »

FredPret wrote: post #621
j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a really unhealthy market so maybe we should regulate that so this massive upscaling is not required? Like enforcing interoperability between platforms, privacy rules etc.?

Can’t compete, let’s legislate? I can only shake my head

Countries don't compete, they make the rules.
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