26 ms·

Europe should kick out or properly tax all the tech giants operating in its borders. It should also figure out a way to foster local competition for all that la

Europe should kick out or properly tax all the tech giants operating in its borders. It should also figure out a way to foster local competition for all that large tech companies. I wonder what would happen if they poured a couple of hundred billion dollars into a facebook competitor. Facebook's network effects are legion but their technology is trivial to copy.

luckydata 8y ago
Why would Europe finance its own version of a cultural cancer? Investing in business tech would make TONS more sense.
- oaiey 8y ago
  Have not we done that in the past :)
elorant 8y ago
Who on earth would raise 200bn in capital? The public sector can't finance private institutions because it's against the EU laws. As a matter of fact a lot of local governments have been fined for supporting big corporations with public funding. Other than that, VC funding isn't as strong as it is in US and I doubt they give more than 30-40bn in total funds in a year.
- Hamuko 8y ago
  >The public sector can't finance private institutions because it's against the EU laws. This isn't actually true.
bobcostas55 8y ago
>It should also figure out a way to foster local competition for all that large tech companies. This would require a radical, top-to-bottom reorganization of the entire European political structure. Not gonna happen.
kzrdude 8y ago
If antitrust legislation was being used properly in us and Europe, we'd have more choice instead of the Facebook cluster of services
jseliger 8y ago
It's fascinating to watch you make a point Paul Graham already discussed way back in 2009: http://www.paulgraham.com/revolution.html http://www.paulgraham.com/revolution.html. I wonder what would happen if they poured a couple of hundred billion dollars into a facebook competitor 1. Europe doesn't have "a couple hundred billion dollars" lying around; do you have any concept of how much that is? 2. Nothing would happen; by the time the project is complete, the world would have moved on. The trick is building out the next revolution, which is exactly what Europe seems to be intent on inhibiting.

luckydata 8y ago

Why would Europe finance its own version of a cultural cancer? Investing in business tech would make TONS more sense.

oaiey 8y ago
Have not we done that in the past :)

elorant 8y ago

Who on earth would raise 200bn in capital? The public sector can't finance private institutions because it's against the EU laws. As a matter of fact a lot of local governments have been fined for supporting big corporations with public funding. Other than that, VC funding isn't as strong as it is in US and I doubt they give more than 30-40bn in total funds in a year.

Hamuko 8y ago
>The public sector can't finance private institutions because it's against the EU laws. This isn't actually true.

bobcostas55 8y ago

>It should also figure out a way to foster local competition for all that large tech companies. This would require a radical, top-to-bottom reorganization of the entire European political structure. Not gonna happen.

kzrdude 8y ago

If antitrust legislation was being used properly in us and Europe, we'd have more choice instead of the Facebook cluster of services

jseliger 8y ago

It's fascinating to watch you make a point Paul Graham already discussed way back in 2009: http://www.paulgraham.com/revolution.html http://www.paulgraham.com/revolution.html. I wonder what would happen if they poured a couple of hundred billion dollars into a facebook competitor 1. Europe doesn't have "a couple hundred billion dollars" lying around; do you have any concept of how much that is? 2. Nothing would happen; by the time the project is complete, the world would have moved on. The trick is building out the next revolution, which is exactly what Europe seems to be intent on inhibiting.