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That makes the original point. They are bought by US companies because the US has facilitated tech and capital growth. In another world, the EU would've done be

That makes the original point. They are bought by US companies because the US has facilitated tech and capital growth. In another world, the EU would've done better on that and bought US companies.

conaclos 3y ago
We certainly need more regulation to prevent this kind of buying. But that is clearly not the mood at the moment.
uxp8u61q 3y ago
Is capital growth the most important goal we should set for ourselves as a society?
- tiahura 3y ago
  An increase in productive capacity seems like a positive to me.
  - golemotron 3y ago
    Yes. That would've served Europe better too. Now they are in the embarrassing position of trying to regulate companies that aren't under their jurisdiction.
  - zlg_codes 3y ago
    There are reasons to live that don't include being exploited for profit.
    - ffgjgf1 3y ago
      So you’d rather be more poor and less productive (but still exploited) just so that corporations would have lower profits?
      - zlg_codes 3y ago
        I'd rather not be chained to serving humans at all, thanks.
        ffgjgf1 3y ago
        Are you a robot?
- refurb 3y ago
  The EU taxes profits, and economic growth results in increased employment and the tax revenue from taxing wages. This contributes to tax revenue and hence things like healthcare, social welfare, etc. I don't necessarily agree with Singapore's approach, but Lee Kwan Yew made a speech that sums it up nicely... "The opposition [in Parliament] say we're obsess with profit. I said 'Of course! That's how Singapore survives!' What do you think pays for all this? [talking about public housing, healthcare, public education, etc] You make profit into a dirty word and Singapore dies."
Slartie 3y ago
None of these companies except Nokia and Skype were even bought out by US companies. And those two are not exactly huge losses for Europe. The entire comment is BS. The US doesn't have that much of a lead when it comes to hardware, especially chips, and is as dependent on Europe as Europe is dependent on the US in turn. Both are dependent on Taiwan anyways. The US has a lead on software, mostly due to an inherent advantage of having a large domestic market with mostly the same rules everywhere, whereas the European market is as big in total, but unfortunately is divided into many smaller markets with fairly large differences and cannot be captured as quickly as the US market. This gives companies which scale nearly effortlessly from a tech perspective (modern software based startups) a huge advantage in terms of the available headroom for quick, initial growth. This advantage is largely irrelevant in industries where physical stuff must be produced and which are therefore hard to scale anyway, but it is almost a guarantee for a dominant role in the realm of SAAS. So, no - there is no other world where Europe would have bought out US companies, at least not if we talk about Google, Salesforce, Oracle, etc., and if we talk about a similarly-structured US and EU.

That makes the original point. They are bought by US companies because the US has facilitated tech and capital growth. In another world, the EU would've done better on that and bought US companies.

conaclos 3y ago

We certainly need more regulation to prevent this kind of buying. But that is clearly not the mood at the moment.

uxp8u61q 3y ago

Is capital growth the most important goal we should set for ourselves as a society?

tiahura 3y ago
An increase in productive capacity seems like a positive to me.
- golemotron 3y ago
  Yes. That would've served Europe better too. Now they are in the embarrassing position of trying to regulate companies that aren't under their jurisdiction.
- zlg_codes 3y ago
  There are reasons to live that don't include being exploited for profit.
  - ffgjgf1 3y ago
    So you’d rather be more poor and less productive (but still exploited) just so that corporations would have lower profits?
    - zlg_codes 3y ago
      I'd rather not be chained to serving humans at all, thanks.
      - ffgjgf1 3y ago
        Are you a robot?
refurb 3y ago
The EU taxes profits, and economic growth results in increased employment and the tax revenue from taxing wages. This contributes to tax revenue and hence things like healthcare, social welfare, etc. I don't necessarily agree with Singapore's approach, but Lee Kwan Yew made a speech that sums it up nicely... "The opposition [in Parliament] say we're obsess with profit. I said 'Of course! That's how Singapore survives!' What do you think pays for all this? [talking about public housing, healthcare, public education, etc] You make profit into a dirty word and Singapore dies."

Slartie 3y ago

None of these companies except Nokia and Skype were even bought out by US companies. And those two are not exactly huge losses for Europe. The entire comment is BS. The US doesn't have that much of a lead when it comes to hardware, especially chips, and is as dependent on Europe as Europe is dependent on the US in turn. Both are dependent on Taiwan anyways. The US has a lead on software, mostly due to an inherent advantage of having a large domestic market with mostly the same rules everywhere, whereas the European market is as big in total, but unfortunately is divided into many smaller markets with fairly large differences and cannot be captured as quickly as the US market. This gives companies which scale nearly effortlessly from a tech perspective (modern software based startups) a huge advantage in terms of the available headroom for quick, initial growth. This advantage is largely irrelevant in industries where physical stuff must be produced and which are therefore hard to scale anyway, but it is almost a guarantee for a dominant role in the realm of SAAS. So, no - there is no other world where Europe would have bought out US companies, at least not if we talk about Google, Salesforce, Oracle, etc., and if we talk about a similarly-structured US and EU.