Thread

1. softwaredoug · 1789557035 · focus · HN ↗

   I’m not sure this is a good thing for Canada.

   The EU feels like an incomplete experiment. Not strong enough to actually be a single market. But still able to create additional annoying regulations on top of nation level ones.

   The EU needs to be truly Federal to succeed economically. That might create uniform regulations with more uniform regulations and actually make Europe competitive.

   1. mitxela · 1789562286 · focus · HN ↗

      The EU shouldn't become the US. EU countries are sovereign, with the practical right to completely ignore what the EU tells them to do, and this is a good thing for now. If an EU country legalizes weed, federal troopers do not march in, arrest all the weed dispensary owners and march them to federal prison because those things don't exist.

      1. softwaredoug · 1789562673 · focus · HN ↗

         Ok but you have to accept that means an EU country works with a hand tied behind its back.

         In the US I can start a company and instantly have a market of 350M. Start a company in an EU country, then try to expand to another country, it’s a nightmare. That company will have a lower upper bound on market size.

         The EU might be a success in coordinating on regional issues, but I don’t think it’s yet an asset to the European economy.

         1. mitxela · 1789562857 · focus · HN ↗

            Do you propose forcing 27 groups of people to become 1 group just so it's easier to sell them things?

            Culture in Europe is more on sustainable business rather than hypergrowth, but you can expand to other countries too. You just have to have a business strategy catering to all the groups you want to cater to.

            I think it's good the supermarket chains in France and in Germany are mostly disjoint sets, it keeps competition around. Pan-EU Supermarket Inc would be bad.

            1. softwaredoug · 1789562989 · focus · HN ↗

               I’m just telling you the tradeoffs you’ve chosen. You can’t be an economic superpower in the current regime.

               Without your own “hypergrowth” you’ll always be dominated by the hypergrowth of competitors like the US and China. You’ll be in orbit of other powers instead of creating your own gravity.

               Where am I wrong?

               1. Waterluvian · 1789564582 · focus · HN ↗

                  To pivot a bit from the point above: I'm not sold on the core premise of the need for "hypergrowth." I think the American economy has been an incredible engine for productivity and I mostly agree that there's a lot of things that get in the way of the same in the EU and other countries. But I look around the U.S. and wonder what exactly the goal is if it's not actually giving everyone safer, more comfortable lives.
               2. mitxela · 1789567455 · focus · HN ↗

                  I don't think they are bad tradeoffs. I think there are problems that need to be fixed but the core principles are fine.
               3. foldr · 1789638940 · focus · HN ↗

                  Didn't the US also used to lecture China on how it would never be an economic superpower if it didn't adopt liberal democracy and US-style free market capitalism?

                  I think the world is less and less interested in the concept of securing economic growth by copying the exact US economic and political model. Different parts of the world are going to figure this out in different ways.

               4. dpc050505 · 1789658595 · focus · HN ↗

                  When you take the eurozone as a block it puts it only second to the US in terms of GDP, with much better QOL indicators. I don't know how you can think this doesn't place it very much within the realm of economic superpowers.

                  Being a superpower doesn't mean much to the americans that live in a town that looks like Gummo. There's a lot of them.

               5. mitxela · 1789782472 · focus · HN ↗

                  Do you propose forcing 27 groups to become the same just so it's easier to sell them things?

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