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Europe feels somewhat depressing these days. I don't recall when was the last time I heard genuinely positive news coming from there. Everything is broken and f
by jimmyed 6y ago
Europe feels somewhat depressing these days. I don't recall when was the last time I heard genuinely positive news coming from there. Everything is broken and falling apart.
- antipaul 6y agoLooking at technology, yes. They sort of gave up competing with US and China, and focus on regulation (eg, GDPR) But then “9 of the top 10 happiest nations are in Europe” [1]. That’s good news right? The question is how will this dynamic play out over next few decades. Is it necessary to lead in technology to remain peaceful and happy? [1] https://qz.com/1986996/europe-is-home-to-9-of-the-10-happiest-countries-in-the-world/ https://qz.com/1986996/europe-is-home-to-9-of-the-10-happies...
- andi999 6y agoThe answer is yes. European happiness needs a certain level of prosperity. You only get that with competitive products on the world market. But some parts are still competitive.
- andor 6y agoAccording to Bloomberg's innovation index, 7 of the top 10 most innovative countries are also in Europe. https://www.statista.com/chart/19312/most-innovative-economies-in-the-world/ https://www.statista.com/chart/19312/most-innovative-economi...
- jimmyed 6y agoThat article legit mentions Austria as one of the top 10 innovative countries in the WORLD. How can anyone take the ranking seriously?
- brnt 6y agoPerhaps that is a sign you should be looking into methodology and be enlightened?
- BitwiseFool 6y agoI can understand where this poster is coming from. I don't know of anything innovative coming out of Austria/Austrian companies.
- mahkeiro 6y agoBecause innovation is more than a couple of crappy software coming out of silicon valley...
- xiphias2 6y agoThis is a joke. EU's relative GDP is decreasing, while China's is increasing and US is staying the same.
- mrDmrTmrJ 6y agoI'd be fascinated to see how the US states of California, Washington, Texas, and Massachusetts would score on that index.
- jimmyed 6y agoBhutan is pretty happy too, whatever that means. It's feels like Europe has exhausted it's fuel and is now slowing down to a crawl while India and China are just getting started burning their gas. It's history in the making really.
- nickik 6y agoHappiness research is a total crap-shot. Depending on methodology you get totally different answers.
- rsynnott 6y agoWhere was Pfizer-Biontec developed?
- burundi_coffee 6y agoIn that case you mist be reading primarily US news outlets.
- SiempreViernes 6y agoYeah, it's like Biden winning made people completely forget that Trump was there until little over two months ago and the circumstances that put him there aren't materially changed...
- sschueller 6y agoFunny as from Europe it looks like that in the US from what we hear and read. It's like the US is falling apart. Maybe generally most places are having a bad time with the pandemic and recession that is coming.
- astrange 6y agoThe US isn't going to have a recession this year - things look positive, and the faster we do vaccinations the more positive they'll be. This is mostly because we learned from our 2008 mistakes and are much better at stimulus now (hint: never listen to Larry Summers.) The EU and Japan are going to be the ones with issues.
- kazen44 6y agoah yes, it has nothing to do with the petrodollar and the fact that the US can eat inflation thanks to being the world reserve currency.
- astrange 6y agoIt’s because the EU and Japan are doing badly at vaccines. I said nothing about their economic policies. It does have nothing to do with that though, just as you say. I’ll change my mind if Japan ever experiences hyperinflation from too much stimulus though!
- astrange 6y agoEdit timer is pretty short. Source is OECD projections: https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1369273724743127046 https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1369273724743127046
- imtringued 6y agoThe US is falling apart right now and EU will soon follow. However, once Biden passes the $3 trillion infrastructure program the positions will reverse and the USA will leave the EU in the dust. Extreme opinion: All the printed dollars should have been put into infrastructure.
- carabiner 6y agoWell, there was a presidential candidate promoting "European style socialism" for a while.
- ArkanExplorer 6y agoYou're not alone with that thinking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strange_Death_of_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strange_Death_of_Europe The problem is basically the welfare state, which requires a huge tax system/burden to support, and encourages 'welfare tourism'. Dropping all welfare for non-citizens, setting a minimum lifetime income tax paid to receive citizenship (eg. €100,000) refusing further immigration from troublesome nations and actually deporting those already there, as well as raising the retirement age to 70 - and with the savings eliminating payroll tax and cutting VAT to 16% (the legal minimum) across the bloc - are the necessary solutions. The other issue is land taxation - in many countries eg. Britain, Spain, huge land areas are still owned by basically the aristocracy, who receive EU farm subsidies and pay little in the way of land taxation.
- BrianOnHN 6y agoYou seem to be well versed in both EU and USA issues. What's your background?