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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?

#811

Post by systemvoltage »

FredPret wrote: post #782
splithalf wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Targeted ads are unethical and should be eliminated, the abuses are too obvious to enumerate. Prostitution and drugs have also enabled the existence of many small companies.

Everything has an upside and a downside. Eliminating all targeted ads will lead to entrepreneurship being restricted to the rich or the well-connected, which is not only unethical but anathema to me and many others. I think the way forward is somewhere in the middle, targeted ads with restrictions and opt-outs. Polarization isn't a path to progress. As an aside, prostitution doesn't have to be the crime magnet it is…

I agree. It’s interesting to look at Trade fairs and exhibitions. “Furniture industry fair” is targeted ads so to speak and benefit the industry by bringing producers to consumers under a single roof.

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

#812

Post by kelp »

withinboredom wrote: post #694
simonh wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I people freely move from one service or product to another, usually it's because the new service is cheaper or better than the old service or product. That's direct value to the end user right there. Moving to AWS from running your own data centres is vastly more cost effective for most companies, you can build systems faster, you can scale them instantly, you can move resources between regions easily, you can focus…

> You cannot buy hardware like it anywhere else, at any price. Strange, I bought a PC with 2x the specs at the same price as a maxed out Mac…

I’m not sure what dimensions you are considering 2x the specs, but Mac laptops with an m1 beat any PC laptop on CPU performance, battery life and heat output.

Yeah, you can get a PC with more ram, more storage and a bigger GPU.

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

#813

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

whiddershins wrote: post #745
j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but the people writing the articles I read do.

Really? I could have sworn you mentioned school shootings. Which are rare, which is why they make the headlines. In Chicago there are mass shootings every weekend that get no press coverage. The inner city gang warfare and similar makes up the vast majority of mass shootings in the U.S. Mass shootings have basically nothing to do with small town and rural NRA members. Did you already know all that?

In my last post, where I actually agreed that I should dial it down a little, I therefore wrote about mass shootings.

I really don't care about who shoots who. You know, as an European I know for a fact that if less people have guns, less shooting happens, no matter who's the shooter.

And of course your rural NRA member has a huge influence on inner city shootings, after all the NRA is also responsible for the laws leading to that many guns circulating.

So yeah, I know those things, and I know how wrong you are. Again, I actually live in a country with very few mass shootings, whatever the NRA tells you, they do exist. It seems like NRA "a good guy with a gun" propaganda works though, although I can't really believe that.

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

#814

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

oytis wrote: post #625
j_wtf_all_taken wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying parties in Europe are interchangeable? We know what happens with Covid due to science, modeling and stuff. But a virus spread is oretty easy to model compared to a society and its economy. So until now it worked really nice, haven't seen a lot of studies saying it won't in the future, rather the opposite. Edit: or do you mean because we're getting older and hace fewer kids? Yeah that'll be a challang…

> So you're saying parties in Europe are interchangeable? No, not at all. But you don't have the same party ruling in U.S. for several decades. That would be legally possible, but that just doesn't happen due to how the system works. > So until now it worked really nice I'm not very well versed with the statistics here. But my impression is that social security is on decline. Welfare benefits sum grows much slower th…

I agree that for example in Germany, it would be very helpful to limit the chancellor(...ship?) to two terms.

But again, just because social security does not deliver all it promises - throw it out completely? I don't get that point. Tendencies that exist right now can be corrected.

And that wouldn't even be more expensive, but at least in Germany, the money would just have to be distributed more fairly. For example, you get the same amount of child benefits no matter what you earn. That doesn't make sense. So change that a little and lots of people won't notice while lots of people will do way better.

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

#815

Post by dang »

SOMA_BOFH wrote: post #237
thijsc wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to know where to start! Looking at the Netherlands, where I'm from: There are many fast-growing tech companies. Both big and small. Bigger examples are Adyen and Elastic. GitLab started out here. This is a pretty nice overview, which still misses a lot: https://www.notion.so/Dutch-SaaS-Landscape-89504403a57e43f58... There are many many tech companies with 10s of millions of revenue that aren't even on this list.…

your anecdotal evidence is quite entertaining. please continue.

Would you please stop posting flamewar and/or unsubstantive comments to HN? You've been doing it a lot and we ban that sort of account because we're trying for a different kind of site here. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit more to heart, we'd be grateful.

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

#816

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #608
gjhh244 wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mass migration from developing world is mostly a burden to European welfare systems these days, since a lot of it is humanitarian and most humanitarian migrants lack skills to do well in our job markets.

When I look at my own country we want the doctors and scientists but NOT the wretched refuse of teeming shores. Americans think it's racist but actually it is just business.

Just not very good business. People want to work and people want to learn. Let them. Don't be the problem.

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

#817

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #679
oytis wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half of refugees, not half of immigrants. Most immigrants are employed of course, that's how you normally get in Europe. And it's not like refugees were allowed to look for jobs immediately, getting work permit for a refugee takes awfully long in Germany. Cost of their children is pretty much the same as for German children. And it's a necessary expenditure, otherwise the said taxpayers are going to have a pretty rou…

> Cost of their children is pretty much the same as for German children If the principal benefit of a refugee couple is their children, the the cost of accepting and maintaining that couple is part of the cost of that child. I believe there is a moral responsibility, on the part of rich countries, to accept some refugees. But we have to be honest that it is usually charitable work. Framing it as economically benefici…

> But we have to be honest that it is usually charitable work.

Funny how often people start a sentence with "we got to be honest" and finish it with something that has long been debunked.

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

#818

Post by jopsen »

ericmay wrote: post #697
kawsper wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried using Moove? It's the same on-demand concept of Uber, but it's Dantaxi that are behind it with certified taxi drivers: https://moove.taxi

Is there something special about certified taxi drivers? Do they have a test to pass on driving skills or?

Special drivers licenses, etc. insurance, etc.

I'll be honest: the few times I've used a Danish taxi, they've been very good.

In general it's like hiring black car service in the US.

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

#819

Post by iso1210 »

nxc18 wrote: post #787
iso1210 wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's this mindset that allows the US to be far more productive https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm GDP per hour worked for the US is $72/hour, same as Belgium. France is $68, Denmark $75, Germany $66. Is 9% "far more productive"? Japan FWIW is $47/hour.

Yes but you’re missing the part of the conversation where it was established that US workers work more. https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2003/european-vacatio... Anecdotally, it throws a wrench in the works when you can’t do any major projects over the winter or summer months because some portion of your team is going to be on a month-long vacation.

That's not productivity

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

#820

Post by j_wtf_all_taken »

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

Well, making the European economy competitive (in your view, not mine) would also require legislation, so I guess shaking your head is just your thing that you would do anyway?

So you favor the monopolies that some American companies have in some markets?

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