Comment by SilverElfin

What also has been true the whole time is that nobody has been stopping companies in other countries from creating social media sites, electronic wallets, movie streaming, operating systems, image hosting, or food delivery services. You are right, creating these companies does not come from some special skills only found in the US. Not sure why you are mad at US for creating these services, especially because, like you said, nobody is forcing you to use them. And nobody in the US is going to be upset if an EU company creates a new fun or convenient web service.

The problem is that convenience trumps everything.

  - It is convenient to use Facebook to chat with family
  - It is convenient to use credit cards to pay the local shop
  - It is convenient to use Netflix to watch movies
  - It is convenient to pay a (lower) monthly fee than a (higher) purchase price for MS products
  - It is convenient to have Apple / Google take care of email
  - It is convenient to use Uber instead of a taxi

The golden cage of convenience is why nothing will change in the US -- we prize convenience above all else.

It is also a courtesy that free countries respect US copyright. I wouldn't be surprised if EU countries have already started ramping up corporate espionage and are making contingency plans to seize all data and assets on their territory. If they manage to get ahold of source code and data, they may be able to keep some services running without US involvement.

Netflix is a good example: the functionality isn't difficult to reproduce, and the only thing that restricts its library is copyright, which the EU could just stop enforcing for American companies.

You don't need it, but you want it, which is why you buy it. The vast majority of the economies of all post-industrial nations are dedicated not to needs, but wants. And convenience is one of the biggest ones. Go ahead, call me a prick, but you're a good customer, and I know you'll keep buying. We didn't loot your data. You gave it freely in exchange for the extremely convenient services that are built on it. You can go ahead and not use Google Maps next time you need to get somewhere you don't know the route. You can buy a map book and put it in your car and navigate the old way. But we both know you won't.

> We made them rich. They looted our data and poisoned our societies with fake news. They show no respect towards our systems or culture.

And yet everyone and their dog in Europe has an iPhone.

All true, but incomplete: you are not discounting these advantages with plain old 'industrial inertia'.

Some stuff just went goes to the USA, because it always went to the USA - even though the original advantages are long gone.

Screw with it enough and the users (the world) just route around the damage.

As the UK can attest after Brexit.

AI race is a very good example, because Microsoft customers in the EU pay significantly increased Microsoft license fees so that Microsoft can give that money to OpenAI. Without Microsoft having non-US customers as a cash cow the AI valuations would not be anywhere where they are today. In return non-US Microsoft customers get a useless copilot slapped into all UIs and have to throw away all their computers and buy new ones just because of Windows 11 software update.

The other things you list are weak arguments:

  - With mature capital markets you mean they plan to dismantle the Fed autonomy? Did you see the powell video?
  - Concerning "elite research universities": are you aware that they significantly cut research funding for US universities, prompting many researchers to move outside the country?
  - With talent pipeline do you mean top graduates from EU and other non-US regions who bring innovation to US tech companies?

I think the delusion among US tech workers is immense. The moat is not that big. If other countries stop sharing your idea of copyright and software patents there is not much you can do.

The problem: you just listed all of the things under attack by the current administration.

As much as I think US annexation of Greenland would be the single worst foreign policy move of my lifetime, and maybe in US history, the US military is not the one who isn't prepared for that fight.

As a spectator from neither continent, I feel Trump is being a bit of a wuss.

He should give into his vices, embrace his inner-Putin and demand a “land-bridge” from Washington State to Alaska.

For national security reasons, of course.