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> EU didn't go into an uncontrolled spree investing every company that had .com in its name and ruined thousands of lives and wasted billions of dollars. This
by ADeerAppeared 2y ago
> EU didn't go into an uncontrolled spree investing every company that had .com in its name and ruined thousands of lives and wasted billions of dollars.
This is the thing that so many Americans in tech don't seem to understand. VC Twitter is full of smugposting about how the US has "$5 trillion market-cap of startups" and the EU doesn't.
And what they miss is that the EU doesn't want Silicon Valley. It doesn't want the "trillions in startups". Because essentially none of them turn any profit. Why on earth would anyone want $5 trillion dollars in companies that do not make financial sense yet have awful externalities.
- ryan93 2y agoThe five trillion market cap is from very profitable companies
- ADeerAppeared 2y agoStartups, not big tech companies.
- ryan93 2y agoEvery company was started up
- khuey 2y agoAAPL's profit is roughly equivalent to the GDP of Slovakia.
- OKRainbowKid 2y agoThat's great for apple shareholders and citizens of Ireland indirectly benefitting from the miniscule amount of tax Apple pays here!
- toomuchtodo 2y agoI understand you were rebutting OPs point that not every tech company is a capital furnace, but when framed in this manner, this sounds like something to be solved, not something to be proud of. That’s the difference between the EU and the US, and there is a strong case to be made that life is better in the EU when observing majorities. Who is benefiting from Apple’s profits being the size of a small country’s GDP? Not most people, therefore, why would this be optimized for?
- maxerickson 2y agoApple makes a lot of profit because their products provide a lot of value. Do you think that if you compare the profit that Apple makes to the value that that users get that Apple has the larger share of it? To a disturbing degree?
- toomuchtodo 2y agoCertainly, if a company’s profits are the size of a small country’s GDP, I find that disturbing regardless of the value they’re delivering. Value is the experience and consumer excess, profits are fiat. Could that same value be delivered with compressed profits leading to greater consumer excess? I believe so. Not all profits are earned, some are inherent once an org achieves a certain maturity or industry position. Visa and Mastercard skimming a non insignificant amount off of US GDP, for example. Is that value? https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/LAZONICK_William_Profits-without-Prosperity-20140406.pdf https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/LAZONICK_Willia... (“Profits Without Prosperity: How Stock Buybacks Manipulate the Market, and Leave Most Americans Worse Off”)
- maxerickson 2y agoYou didn't answer the first question about whether you think consumers or Apple have the larger share.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
- ADeerAppeared 2y ago[flagged]
- dang 2y agoYikes, please don't break the site guidelines like that. We have to ban accounts that do. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
- Zpalmtree 2y agooh my God please stop inovating and making jobs think of the externalities!!!
- cqqxo4zV46cp 2y agoAmerican culture in a nutshell is to be in awe of large numbers without thinking very hard about whether you’re measuring the right things in the first place.