3 ms·

Why does Europe suck at technological innovation?

2 points by edw519 15y ago

Uchikoma 15y ago
Sure, sorry Europe does not have innovations like Twitter and we need to stay with automobile, machine engineering, medical, chemical innovations, built the largest commercial plane and sell more commercial planes than the largest US producer. We suck at innovating. Concerning the labor laws cited for Germany: The changed labor laws are credited for managing the financial crisis better than other countries (flexible working time accounts, short time working helped companies to keep their talent, power up their production lines much faster and reduce recruiting cost after the crisis was over). Not wanting to stir up a flamewar, but these articles are pointless.
- mhd 15y ago
  Couldn't agree more. Not saying that a good article about the differences wouldn't be worth the while, but what I've been reading lately here is just the usual mumbo-jumbo of "Italy has no Twitter" and "Wharbargl, socialism!". Never mind that calling all that technological innovation is a bit of a moot point. Maybe there's a bunch of articles where Germans make fun of US cars in economic magazines, and this are just the well-deserved replies...
  - Uchikoma 15y ago
    Although it might be considered "Pro"-European, I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_European_Dream http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_European_Dream is a good book on the topic of US and European differences.
    - mhd 15y ago
      Considering the recent financial difficulties (and heck, the fact that the UK is still not quite in there), I wonder how large the mindshare for a pan-European dream is right now. But thanks for the tip, I'll add it to my reading stack.
david927 15y ago
The author's sole evidence that Europe sucks at technological innovation is that it doesn't make as much money off of it. That's an understandable mistake, but a huge one. The web? Invented in Europe, given away. Linux? Invented in Europe, given away. MySQL? Invented in Europe, given away. Great programming languages? Invented in Europe, given away. The US is better at taking those inventions and making Icanhascheezburger, Twitter and Farmville.

2 points by edw519 15y ago

Sure, sorry Europe does not have innovations like Twitter and we need to stay with automobile, machine engineering, medical, chemical innovations, built the largest commercial plane and sell more commercial planes than the largest US producer. We suck at innovating. Concerning the labor laws cited for Germany: The changed labor laws are credited for managing the financial crisis better than other countries (flexible working time accounts, short time working helped companies to keep their talent, power up their production lines much faster and reduce recruiting cost after the crisis was over). Not wanting to stir up a flamewar, but these articles are pointless.

mhd 15y ago
Couldn't agree more. Not saying that a good article about the differences wouldn't be worth the while, but what I've been reading lately here is just the usual mumbo-jumbo of "Italy has no Twitter" and "Wharbargl, socialism!". Never mind that calling all that technological innovation is a bit of a moot point. Maybe there's a bunch of articles where Germans make fun of US cars in economic magazines, and this are just the well-deserved replies...
- Uchikoma 15y ago
  Although it might be considered "Pro"-European, I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_European_Dream http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_European_Dream is a good book on the topic of US and European differences.
  - mhd 15y ago
    Considering the recent financial difficulties (and heck, the fact that the UK is still not quite in there), I wonder how large the mindshare for a pan-European dream is right now. But thanks for the tip, I'll add it to my reading stack.

david927 15y ago

The author's sole evidence that Europe sucks at technological innovation is that it doesn't make as much money off of it. That's an understandable mistake, but a huge one. The web? Invented in Europe, given away. Linux? Invented in Europe, given away. MySQL? Invented in Europe, given away. Great programming languages? Invented in Europe, given away. The US is better at taking those inventions and making Icanhascheezburger, Twitter and Farmville.