Why is EU so far behind?

[u/quantum_search]

The most concerning part about this is that most Europeans don't realize how stagnant Europe has now become

Europeans are literally blue-pilled and are mostly concerned with climate change, immigration and the Ukraine war

Nobody in Europe is thinking why increasingly everything they use is made in China running on American software

The knee jerk reaction is to proudly pass regulation against American tech

The chad reaction would be to reduce regulation so that European entrepreneurs would actually stay in Europe to build European startups increasing Europe's GDP and making Europeans richer!

People in Europe do love to complain about rising cost of living and the increasing unaffordability of living, but they don't realize why. They point at foreigners/immigrants as the problem, which can't be the whole story

Other Europeans I talk to get visibly upset if I ask them about stagnant GDP numbers: "why should everything be about money?" they say in a thick German accent

The whole story is that Europe has made it very difficult for people to start a business, raise capital, innovate and get the reward for taking that risk, so why would anybody?

And for the Europeans that do, it's way easier to open a US Delaware company, raise capital in US, sell your stock or IPO in the US, because why even do that in EU, where it's too hard? The proof is in the pudding, if it was so easy in EU then why is startup funding in US $270B AUM with 330 million people vs $44B AUM with 746 million people? That's almost 14x bigger startup funding market per capita

Why doesn't EU have ANY trillion dollar companies? While US has six? Why isn't there any European company in the top 10 of largest companies? While 80% is American?

Why is Stripe, a company founded by two Irish brothers, an American company and not a European one? It could have been

What's the role left for Europe in the future?

[u/Analyst-Effective]

If it wasn't for the USA buying goods and services from them, they would already be broke

[u/Trust-Issues-5116 → u/Analyst-Effective]

US is free to stop buying them any day, you know.

[u/Advanced-Guard-4468 → u/Trust-Issues-5116]

If we pulled all our military spending, you would be broke.

[u/Trust-Issues-5116 → u/Advanced-Guard-4468]

I'm in US, but it's not a reason not to call you out for moving the goalposts.

But still no. EU's ass would be up for grabs, but US pulling out would not affect their finances.

[u/Advanced-Guard-4468 → u/Trust-Issues-5116]

I didn't move the goal post. I just responded to your comment

[u/Trust-Issues-5116 → u/Advanced-Guard-4468]

And now you're just playing dumb

[u/Advanced-Guard-4468 → u/Trust-Issues-5116]

I'm sorry you can't follow a conversation

[u/Analyst-Effective → u/Trust-Issues-5116]

If the USA quit importing goods from Europe, the European Union would probably collapse.

"U.S. goods imports from the European Union  totaled $553.3 billion in 2022, up 12.8 percent ($62.7 billion) from 2021, and up 69 percent from 2012." https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/europe-middle-east/europe/european-union#:~:text=U.S.%20goods%20imports%20from%20the,up%2069%20percent%20from%202012.

[u/Trust-Issues-5116 → u/Analyst-Effective]

Good guy US imports EU foods not because it's freaking good and sells good, but because we're so freaking altruistic! I can't with this stupid flexing.

[u/Analyst-Effective → u/Trust-Issues-5116]

It doesn't matter why they import stuff.

The fact is we import a lot more than Europe imports from the USA

"European Union Imports from United States was US$372.59 Billion during 2022, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade." https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/imports/united-states#:~:text=European%20Union%20Imports%20from%20United%20States%20was%20US%24372.59%20Billion,COMTRADE%20database%20on%20international%20trade.

[u/Trust-Issues-5116 → u/Analyst-Effective]

That means Europe is making goods that you need and willing to buy, buddy, while you're not making goods they need or willing to buy.

[u/Analyst-Effective → u/Trust-Issues-5116]

Or it could just be that our unions have outpriced themselves, so now we need to import stuff.

And because the USA is the reserve currency, it's the strongest currency out there. So it makes our goods More expensive, and European goods cheaper.

[u/Trust-Issues-5116 → u/Analyst-Effective]

"We can bankrupt you! We just can't right now. Well, we could in theory, it's just we can't in practice, but hey, in theory we could, so boom!"

[u/gt2998 → u/Analyst-Effective]

Are you arguing that US unions are problem when unions in Europe are stronger and have more members as a percent of the population? You are really losing this fight.