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The EU could defend itself against Russia on its current budget. Germany had to reduce its army as part of the reunification deal and is now criticized for not

The EU could defend itself against Russia on its current budget. Germany had to reduce its army as part of the reunification deal and is now criticized for not having a big army. Only France has nuclear weapons and the incentive to spend huge amounts on defense while being dependent on leased and US controlled nukes is not great. Do you prefer that all EU countries get their own nukes? The EU has real tech like ASML, Airbus, Siemens, Alsthom etc. What the US calls "tech" is not regarded as vital in the EU and somewhat belittled. This kind of "tech" is only possible with US hype and massively speculative investments. The US is begging (and blackmailing with tariffs) countries from all over the world to build factories in the US. That doesn't sound like a great success. Energy? The US tries to control all energy choke points of energy flow to the EU. The Nord Stream sabotage was hailed as a great operation, enabling the US to sell overpriced LNG to the EU. The US leased a corridor from Azerbaijan to Turkey to control vast amounts of natural gas from Turkmenistan. A Trump adjacent billionaire floated the idea to buy and revive Nord Stream. What exactly should the EU do? Switch to nuclear energy and buy uranium from Russia like the US does (the US also buys fertilizer)?

Workaccount2 1y ago
The EU needs to do the things that it has prided itself on not doing for the last 30 years. That is the fundamental problem, and I don't see how it can change. Germans work 400 hours less per year than Americans. 400! That's 50 days! How do you get people to work 50 more days a year without mass voting to keep (or even "improve") the status quo? And this doesn't even touch on the heavy regulatory side, which just makes the EU a generally unattractive place to invest.
- bgwalter 1y ago
  Airbus is more profitable than Boeing and has fewer accidents as of late. Maybe you don't mix up bolts in a door if you are more fresh mentally. Companies are free to pay overtime, and the salaries would still be less than in SV. So you could absolutely found a software company in the EU with the same amount of work hours in a competitive manner and still pay less than in the US (under the assumption that the hours are really needed, which I doubt). The real advantage that the US has is that they can more easily exploit users because there are no privacy laws.
  - Workaccount2 1y ago
    The fact you need to compare companies that are 50+ years old, because Europe doesn't have a single competitive modern age company should be enough for me to rest my case, and enough for Europeans to do so serious reflecting. Americas golden child of 1960 now sucks, oh well. In other news Nvidia has a market cap that nearly eclipses the GDP of Germany. Ah! ASML makes the machines for those chips! But then why isn't the EU reaping the fruit...
    - bgwalter 1y ago
      You don't have a case. You just rant, deflect, don't address overtime and privacy laws and change topics.

Workaccount2 1y ago

The EU needs to do the things that it has prided itself on not doing for the last 30 years. That is the fundamental problem, and I don't see how it can change. Germans work 400 hours less per year than Americans. 400! That's 50 days! How do you get people to work 50 more days a year without mass voting to keep (or even "improve") the status quo? And this doesn't even touch on the heavy regulatory side, which just makes the EU a generally unattractive place to invest.

bgwalter 1y ago
Airbus is more profitable than Boeing and has fewer accidents as of late. Maybe you don't mix up bolts in a door if you are more fresh mentally. Companies are free to pay overtime, and the salaries would still be less than in SV. So you could absolutely found a software company in the EU with the same amount of work hours in a competitive manner and still pay less than in the US (under the assumption that the hours are really needed, which I doubt). The real advantage that the US has is that they can more easily exploit users because there are no privacy laws.
- Workaccount2 1y ago
  The fact you need to compare companies that are 50+ years old, because Europe doesn't have a single competitive modern age company should be enough for me to rest my case, and enough for Europeans to do so serious reflecting. Americas golden child of 1960 now sucks, oh well. In other news Nvidia has a market cap that nearly eclipses the GDP of Germany. Ah! ASML makes the machines for those chips! But then why isn't the EU reaping the fruit...
  - bgwalter 1y ago
    You don't have a case. You just rant, deflect, don't address overtime and privacy laws and change topics.