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US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

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Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#81

Post by rescbr »

tanaros wrote: post #72
tedggh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also came to realize building, operating and maintaining a military force is extremely expensive. Free healthcare, 7 weeks of vacation, 36 hr work weeks, unemployment benefits, subsidized housing, etc etc is all great when you don’t have the financial burden of protecting your home.

Total EU defense spending is around $450M USD. The US defense budget, prior to 2027, is about $950M USD. Are you saying the US could have all those social policies for $500M USD?

The US could simply give away $1 M per resident, removing the need for social policies and it would still come out cheaper.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#82

Post by vanviegen »

PowerElectronix wrote: post #60
petcat wrote: post #2

> However, stopping working with Microsoft and other US tech companies is not an option in the short term, he told the magazine. > Van der Burg is currently grappling with the issue of Solvinity, a Dutch cloud service provider which is widely used by government departments including the Digid identity system, and which is on the verge of being sold to a US company. > The Dutch tax office is also currently switching t…

European politicians and bureaucrats are just full of shit and extremely unwilling to make any kind of effort beyond talking.

European politicians are usually not backed by anything even close to a majority, so they need to talk and compromise.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#83

Post by sieabahlpark »

softwaredoug wrote: post #8
petcat wrote: post #2

> However, stopping working with Microsoft and other US tech companies is not an option in the short term, he told the magazine. > Van der Burg is currently grappling with the issue of Solvinity, a Dutch cloud service provider which is widely used by government departments including the Digid identity system, and which is on the verge of being sold to a US company. > The Dutch tax office is also currently switching t…

Ironically GOP talks about European sovereignty over their own defense, but economically want to treat them like a vassal

[dead]

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#84

Post by avidiax »

tanaros wrote: post #72
tedggh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also came to realize building, operating and maintaining a military force is extremely expensive. Free healthcare, 7 weeks of vacation, 36 hr work weeks, unemployment benefits, subsidized housing, etc etc is all great when you don’t have the financial burden of protecting your home.

Total EU defense spending is around $450M USD. The US defense budget, prior to 2027, is about $950M USD. Are you saying the US could have all those social policies for $500M USD?

The US could have those benefits for free.

Single payer would be drastically cheaper than the current system.

The other benefits are just policies that slightly reduce GDP per capita based on a first order analysis.

We are able to afford so many other subsidies, so unclear why housing would be different.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#85

Post by Georgelemental »

weinzierl wrote: post #66
microtonal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They all talk about the importance of European digital sovereignty and then continue to do the exact opposite behind the scenes. To be honest and I say this as a Dutch person, this is typical Dutch (government). Basically two rules in Dutch politics: (1) always choose the option that pleases the US the most; (2) always postpone solving issues to the latest possible moment (US dependence, nitrogen deposition, childcar…

> France, Germany, etc. are much better examples when it comes to sovereignty. France maybe, Germany most definitely not.

No, not France either. It used to be, and some inertia from the Gaullist past remains, but the current leadership is as useless as everyone else.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#86

Post by WarmWash »

vanviegen wrote: post #73
microtonal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They all talk about the importance of European digital sovereignty and then continue to do the exact opposite behind the scenes. To be honest and I say this as a Dutch person, this is typical Dutch (government). Basically two rules in Dutch politics: (1) always choose the option that pleases the US the most; (2) always postpone solving issues to the latest possible moment (US dependence, nitrogen deposition, childcar…

Another way to look at it is that things just move slowly in government land. The tax office moving towards Microsoft has probably been in preparation for half a decade... And do you really believe the government is technically capable of switching DigiD to a different provider on a (relative) moments notice without causing large scale outages? We'll start seeing government bodies moving away from US IT suppliers in…

The actual question is if (capable) SWEs will choose working for (or be a founder of) Dutch/Euro tech companies over US ones, or even leave the US to live there.

Europe is an excellent value prop if you want to be a bartender or baker. Its decidedly less so if you want to be a white collar/gold collar worker.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#87

Post by SiempreViernes »

ReptileMan wrote: post #59
jorvi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However what has happened is that the EU's soft power is crumbling Uh, no. The US soft power is turning to dust whilst the EU is out there building the new free [trade] world, with itself as the biggest lynchpin. What has happened the past ±30 years is that most EU countries cut spending on their militaries to the bone, because big brother USA would take care of it anyway. Now that we are returning to a multi-polar…

>Uh, no. The US soft power is turning to dust whilst the EU is out there building the new free [trade] world, with itself as the biggest lynchpin. To quote when harry met sally - I'll have what she's having.

He's having a dish called "Watching Trump from a distance", you should definitely try it.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#88

Post by trollbridge »

victorbjorklund wrote: post #75
tedggh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also came to realize building, operating and maintaining a military force is extremely expensive. Free healthcare, 7 weeks of vacation, 36 hr work weeks, unemployment benefits, subsidized housing, etc etc is all great when you don’t have the financial burden of protecting your home.

USA has said they will not support Europe in a military conflict so now you can slash your military and fire all those soldiers and have free health care etc. No? Sounds like ”protecting” Europe wasn’t what stood in the way of free healthcare, vacation, etc.

Nearly half (about 47%) of healthcare in the U.S. is government-paid, although via a variety of different programs. The USA also has quite lavish benefits in a variety of other ways.

Of course, that is mostly paid for via massive amounts of debt, not from savings of military spending. But government spending on healthcare is more than twice (2.5 to 3 times) that of military spending. So slashing military spending to zero would just mean the amount of government-provided healthcare spending could go from 47% to 56% or so. (Not taking into account that a lot of "military spending" is actually healthcare spending!)

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#89

Post by WarmWash »

Waterluvian wrote: post #65
microtonal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They all talk about the importance of European digital sovereignty and then continue to do the exact opposite behind the scenes. To be honest and I say this as a Dutch person, this is typical Dutch (government). Basically two rules in Dutch politics: (1) always choose the option that pleases the US the most; (2) always postpone solving issues to the latest possible moment (US dependence, nitrogen deposition, childcar…

This is part of the point of Carney’s Davos speech. Us middle powers need to de-Americanize together or we don’t stand a chance at succeeding.

Which might be impossible given that sacrifices will have to be made in the interim, and people already riot if you even hint at moving retirement age up a year.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#90

Post by trollbridge »

vanviegen wrote: post #76
graemep wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a general western problem to some extent, but the US has a a faster growing economy than any of the big European economies. It is still a super-power.

The "faster growing economy" is basically 100% AI speculation now. If that gamble pays of the US is still in trouble (as is the rest of the world), as there doesn't appear to be even a hint of a plan of what a post-AI society looks like for anybody but the top 0.1%.

I don't think the top 0.1% has a plan, either. From my personal interactions with them, they are mostly just excited they can talk to a chatbot on their phone all day, and then make questionable decisions from that - to use a recent example, deciding to be their own general contractor and make a house remodel cost an extra million and take an extra year to do.
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