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No sane company will leave the second largest market and GDP area of the world, it would take a really lot to make them go to "greener pastures". That isn't ne

No sane company will leave the second largest market and GDP area of the world, it would take a really lot to make them go to "greener pastures". That isn't necessarily true at all. The EU may be a large market, but that doesn't necessarily mean it represents a proportionately large contribution to the revenues of any given business that trades with EU customers. For example, in the world of small tech businesses I operate in, I know of several examples who do offer their services to EU customers like anyone else. However, with hindsight, those businesses would have chosen to give up the relatively small proportion of their business that comes from elsewhere in the EU some time ago, if that also saved them the time and money they spent complying with ever-increasing levels of EU red tape. I even know some people who feel so strongly about this that they voted for Brexit because of it.

blub 7y ago
It seems to me that tech businesses really have an inflated sense of self-importance and a deep aversion to anything which might impede them from abusing people's (private) information.
- Silhouette 7y ago
  It's unfortunate when people resort to stereotypes. It means the vast majority of businesses that aren't doing something shady get penalised for the actions of the relatively few that are.
piva00 7y ago
I thought it was clearly implied in my comment that "no sane company [which has expressive market share coming from the EU] will leave the second largest...". I'm sorry to pick out on this but it's really tiring to go into any discussion having to state all of the intentions and disclaimers before making an argument just to avoid someone nitpicking on semantics and derailing from the main point.
- Silhouette 7y ago
  Unfortunately, in any discussion about European politics at the moment, over-generalisation is the cause of much confusion and numerous misunderstandings. Sometimes qualifiers you consider implicit aren't obvious to someone reading your comment. I'm writing this from the UK, where Brexit seems like the only political topic in town right now. The way the media reports it, and the way the government talks about it, you'd think we were a country full of large manufacturing businesses that do most of their trade with the EU, yet in reality most of our economy is service-based, the majority of it is SMEs, and only a relatively small proportion of our businesses do any trade with the EU at all. I'm sorry if I misunderstood what you meant, but I don't think it was unfair to challenge what you actually wrote, given that many of the large tech businesses we were discussing up to that point do not in fact have the kind of ties to the EU that your comment was talking about, the EU does have a relatively weak tech sector, and the heavy regulatory environment is a contributor to that. This isn't just a nitpick. It fundamentally supports the position of the person you were disagreeing with and contradicts your own argument.

blub 7y ago

It seems to me that tech businesses really have an inflated sense of self-importance and a deep aversion to anything which might impede them from abusing people's (private) information.

Silhouette 7y ago
It's unfortunate when people resort to stereotypes. It means the vast majority of businesses that aren't doing something shady get penalised for the actions of the relatively few that are.

piva00 7y ago

I thought it was clearly implied in my comment that "no sane company [which has expressive market share coming from the EU] will leave the second largest...". I'm sorry to pick out on this but it's really tiring to go into any discussion having to state all of the intentions and disclaimers before making an argument just to avoid someone nitpicking on semantics and derailing from the main point.

Silhouette 7y ago
Unfortunately, in any discussion about European politics at the moment, over-generalisation is the cause of much confusion and numerous misunderstandings. Sometimes qualifiers you consider implicit aren't obvious to someone reading your comment. I'm writing this from the UK, where Brexit seems like the only political topic in town right now. The way the media reports it, and the way the government talks about it, you'd think we were a country full of large manufacturing businesses that do most of their trade with the EU, yet in reality most of our economy is service-based, the majority of it is SMEs, and only a relatively small proportion of our businesses do any trade with the EU at all. I'm sorry if I misunderstood what you meant, but I don't think it was unfair to challenge what you actually wrote, given that many of the large tech businesses we were discussing up to that point do not in fact have the kind of ties to the EU that your comment was talking about, the EU does have a relatively weak tech sector, and the heavy regulatory environment is a contributor to that. This isn't just a nitpick. It fundamentally supports the position of the person you were disagreeing with and contradicts your own argument.