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That's about the distribution of economic activity between large and small businesses. It's got nothing to do with wealth distribution between individuals. All
by simonh 5y ago
That's about the distribution of economic activity between large and small businesses. It's got nothing to do with wealth distribution between individuals.
All that the Economist is pointing out is that there are some businesses in which you have to have massive scale to be competitive. In those specific businesses, you either scale up or you can't compete at all. Europe is giving up competing in those areas.
- Applejinx 5y agoCompetitive is not the same thing as innovative. Innovative is the real disruptor. We forget this at our peril.
- j_wtf_all_taken 5y agoComletition leads to innovation for all while monopolies lead to stagnation or degeneration with a few benificiaries.
- simonh 5y agoOh sure, but as you say they're not the same thing. To disrupt at scale you need to be able to grow to that scale. There are too many barriers to doing this in Europe. I do think Europe has many advantages the US and China don't have, it's not like being able to develop massive scale enterprises is the be-all and end-all of economics, but it is self-limiting in some important ways.
- j_wtf_all_taken 5y agoSounds 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.?
- simonh 5y agoYou can't legislate away practical constraints like economies of scale or basic economics. The Soviets and Maoists tried that and it doesn't work. Also at this sort of scale, of big international business, they are, well, international. Europe can legislate itself into an artificially divided, segregated, politically engineered economic corner as much as it likes but that won't help it's companies compete in America, or China, or anywhere else.
- FredPret 5y agoCan’t compete, let’s legislate? I can only shake my head
- anoncake 5y agoCountries don't compete, they make the rules.
- j_wtf_all_taken 5y agoWell, 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?