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Comment by rdm_blackhole

9 days ago

Have you? I am a European business owner just FYI. I know very well how much taxes I am paying each month.

It always amazes me that there is a subset of EU people here on HN who are so detached from reality that it makes me wonder if these same people are sitting in Brussels board making decisions. According to the sh*thole in which EU ended up, it is not completely implausible. Can't agree more with what you're saying. My experience is the same.

  • I hear you.

    It's frustrating really to have these conversations with people who will deny the reality this much.

    Instead of using this opportunity to ask the questions that everyone should be asking, which are amongst others "how can we fix this mess?" , you end up with people who think you are simply attacking the EU for spite when it couldn't be further from the truth.

    It's sad but not surprising and until that changes then nothing will change.

    Europeans need to start being humble again and need to get to work otherwise then we shouldn't be surprised if the US squeezes us from one side while China out-innovates us from the other side. In the meantime the EU is debating if/when it should amend it's cookie law, I am not sure if I should laugh or cry at this point.

    • > you end up with people who think you are simply attacking the EU

      That's not what I think. But you obviously lack the level of empathy you would need to accept that I may think differently. I accept that you think the way you think: you benefit from it as a business owner.

      > Instead of using this opportunity to ask the questions

      Yeah, because you are so superior to everybody else that people should ask you question, and their opinions are not worth your time.

      "I am the best, I am so frustrated that so many people don't recognise it".

      2 replies →

  • It always amazes me that there are people who genuinely believe that those who disagree with them are "so detached from reality".

    You are a genius, everybody else is dumb. Way to go. Have you already received your Nobels?

    • Not yet and I'm not sure I'm gonna receive it ever but one of the most important things I learned for myself is to understand my limits. I advise you to do the same.

      1 reply →

> I am a European business owner

Exactly. This sentence on its own is enough to explain your opinion, there is no need to explain anything else. Those who are against regulations are the ones who benefit from the lack of regulations.

And those who are in a dominant position generally think that they are there because they deserve it, because they are superior.

  • > And those who are in a dominant position generally think that they are there because they deserve it, because they are superior.

    And this sentence explains your opinion. Business owner = superior = bad

    You haven't responded to anything anyone has said despite the fact that a few of us seem to agree on these issues.

    You basically brush aside anything that does not conform to your narrative and you also dismiss the entire report of Mario Draghi on European competitiveness: https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/draghi-r... who agrees that there are many issues currently with the entire tech industry in Europe.

    The facts are simple: - the EU tech scene is minuscule compared to the US tech scene - the average salary of a tech worker is higher in the US than in Europe - there are many incredible challenges in Europe that stop Europe from competing properly with the US companies - there is a clear lack of innovation and a very real risk aversion and less cash spent on R&D in Europe compared to the US - European competitiveness is lacking and decreasing as time goes on compared to the US

    > Those who are against regulations are the ones who benefit from the lack of regulations.

    But you are right let's keep adding more rules and regulations, I am sure the next one will do the trick and help us expand our tech sector.

    That would be a great narrative except that even the European commission disagrees with you since they are now exploring the option of scaling back some part of GDPR and even delaying the new AI laws because they suddenly realized that it was a major impediment to a healthy tech sector in Europe: https://iapp.org/news/a/european-commission-proposes-signifi...

    In conclusion, you are arguing in bad faith, you believe what you believe because it's easier than to face the facts that Europe dropped the ball 20 years ago and missed the boat on many new technologies and that it is now trying to play catch up and unfortunately catching up will take many decades if that ever happens.

    • > Business owner = superior = bad

      Nope. I said that business owners are generally in a dominant position, and those who are in a dominant position generally think that they deserve it because they are superior. I didn't say "bad", I explained the bias. Everyone is biased.

      > you also dismiss the entire report of Mario Draghi on European competitiveness

      Maybe we can do that: I will look into Mario Draghi's report, and on your end you could have a look at what Cory Doctorow has to say about the US monopolies and antitrust policies?

      So that at least we would get some amount of open-mindness out of this not-so-constructive discussion :-).

      > In conclusion, you are arguing in bad faith

      Yeah, I too think that you can go ** yourself :-). But I will read about Mario Draghi's opinion, maybe you can get some perspective from Doctorow. Bye!