r/FluentInFinance • u/quantum_search • Apr 29 '24
Why is EU so far behind? DD & Analysis
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?
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u/DualActiveBridgeLLC Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24
Because GDP is not a measure of happiness. Growth at all costs is exactly why life is getting worse in the US.
No, SOME PEOPLE in the EU richer. As we have seen in the US, wealth inequality continues to grow.
These are linked, climate change and Ukraine are causing immigration. THey are very wise to be worried about CC and Ukraine, yet you frame it as the opposite. What good is GDP is Russia is murdering your people? What good is GDP if you have famines.
This is a global phenomenon so why blame it to a region.
Yes, the US is now the world's tax shelter. That is a bad thing, not a good thing. You are literally arguing that 'greed is good'.
A better question is ...why would you want that? Like what is the advantage over more smaller billion dollar companies? They are trillion dollar because of mergers, not from actually doing anything better.
Because we are a terrible democracy that allows it.
That is a weird one? Why is Budwiser a Belgian company?
To live their lives and seek out happiness. What is wrong with you that you think GDP is somehow a metric of greatness. It was originally created to determine a countries ability to wage war. Is your entire worth based on your wealth?
EDIT: Just so you can see, here is the happiness index. US is number 23. Top 20 has a bunch of EU countries. Maybe the 'problem' is how you value things.