You misunderstood, I never intended to say the US was an irrelevant economy, that would be foolish. I just wanted to point out, that the HN audience tends to se

You misunderstood, I never intended to say the US was an irrelevant economy, that would be foolish. I just wanted to point out, that the HN audience tends to see things from a very US centric perspective and therefore likes to point out that their own approaches would not be feasible in the EU. However, while struggling at many points, the EU is far from becoming economically irrelevant as the top poster sees to believe. To address your arguments on intellectual property being as important as actual manufacturing, I tend to differ. 3 points: 1. This type of thinking is exactly the reason why china became a super power. 2. Intellectual property is only as good as the power to enforce it, if Russia had the factories to produce the tech they need for the war, nothing could stop them from just from doing it. 3. In economies build on intellectual property and outsourcing, wealth concentrates in the hand of the patent holders. Neither of which seems desirable to me. I do not begrudge the Chinese their economic success, but the events in the north Filipin Sea are concerning.