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I still think Europe makes the best cars. But being the best is never enough to also sell high volumes. Europe is stagnating due to an ever-increasing set of r

by tirant 2y ago

I still think Europe makes the best cars. But being the best is never enough to also sell high volumes. Europe is stagnating due to an ever-increasing set of regulations, higher taxes (partially required to enforce those regulations and a shrinking labor force) and specially the effect that those have on the motivation of the most skilled workers: killing it. Me and my wife have tried starting a couple of businesses, but it’s incredibly complicated to navigate and deal with German bureaucracy, and all the effort gets awarded with an incredibly high tax rate of around 50%. So lots of smart people in my environment are actually walking the path backwards and they have either stopped side projects or simply started to reduce working hours. Either that or just moving to other countries like Switzerland, Singapur or the US. The situation is even worse in Netherlands, France or Spain. The taxation system in those countries creates negative incentives as it makes you feel punished if you become economically successful with a new product or idea. I really think it should be the complete opposite. And it’s not a matter of lack of budget for public services: public education, healthcare and justice are usually covered with around 30% of the public expenditure.

mrtksn 2y ago
Well, maybe the previous gen cars but Europe doesn't have an outlier in EVs. Anyway, I don't think that it has anything with regulations or taxes. It's the attitude of Europeans. You can see how European GDPs have fallen short after 2008 but that's not because regulations kicked in in 2008 but because, IMHO, the way they handled the economical crisis. Also, Europeans have a different understanding of what startup is supposed to do, they appear to think that its computer based high margin small business and Americans appear to believe that its supposed to be a business that should grow extremely fast and doesn't have to have any profit until it captures the market and establishes monopoly. The American way creates huge wealth but creates a lot of suffering and stagnation once the startup reaches the profit making phase. This is a no-go for the Europeans, its something that the public demands be tackled and its something that EU tries to do with giant tech corporations and that's what makes the American businesses hate EU. I don't know if European public will accept having american-like wealth concentration at the top. The vibe in Europe is that we should all have a dignified life quality and un USA they are O.K. with having people in extreme poverty at the same street with 40 Billion dollar company HQ. When they are too annoyed by all that poor, their solution ideas are something like "let's move somewhere else", "let's buy a land and create a new city where we don't have these people around" or "let's kick out these people and make them someone else's problem". Yes, the American way creates huge wealth but I'm not convinced that its an improvement over over European way. Also, don't look just for EU vs USA, take at look at China, Japan and Singapore who also managed to built great wealth or innovation without forcing part of the population in poverty.

by tirant 2y ago

mrtksn 2y ago

Well, maybe the previous gen cars but Europe doesn't have an outlier in EVs. Anyway, I don't think that it has anything with regulations or taxes. It's the attitude of Europeans. You can see how European GDPs have fallen short after 2008 but that's not because regulations kicked in in 2008 but because, IMHO, the way they handled the economical crisis. Also, Europeans have a different understanding of what startup is supposed to do, they appear to think that its computer based high margin small business and Americans appear to believe that its supposed to be a business that should grow extremely fast and doesn't have to have any profit until it captures the market and establishes monopoly. The American way creates huge wealth but creates a lot of suffering and stagnation once the startup reaches the profit making phase. This is a no-go for the Europeans, its something that the public demands be tackled and its something that EU tries to do with giant tech corporations and that's what makes the American businesses hate EU. I don't know if European public will accept having american-like wealth concentration at the top. The vibe in Europe is that we should all have a dignified life quality and un USA they are O.K. with having people in extreme poverty at the same street with 40 Billion dollar company HQ. When they are too annoyed by all that poor, their solution ideas are something like "let's move somewhere else", "let's buy a land and create a new city where we don't have these people around" or "let's kick out these people and make them someone else's problem". Yes, the American way creates huge wealth but I'm not convinced that its an improvement over over European way. Also, don't look just for EU vs USA, take at look at China, Japan and Singapore who also managed to built great wealth or innovation without forcing part of the population in poverty.