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EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

693 points · 905 comments · hackernj

  1. noir_lord · · focus · HN ↗
    Good, if the middle power democracies don't align/work together they are going to get torn apart in the struggle between the US and China.
    1. 0xpgm · · focus · HN ↗
      One thing that is common about middle democracies is that prioritize a bureaucratic elite structure over an entrepreneurship culture, while both the US and China embrace entreprenuership wholeheartedly.

      If they changed that they'd perhaps become world powers themselves.

      1. pyrale · · focus · HN ↗
        > One thing that is common about middle democracies is that prioritize a bureaucratic elite structure over an entrepreneurship culture

        No, that's just the 2010s propaganda fed to you by people who assert that not letting them do whatever they want is "bureaucratic". These very same people are completely fine lobbying legislature for more moat when they benefit from it.

        The difference between "middle democracies" or whatever that means and the US is just that politics aren't corrupted enough yet that they can buy whatever they want.

        1. mitxela · · focus · HN ↗
          I live in one, it's definitely true. It doesn't mean entrepreneurship doesn't exist, but there is a lot of bureaucracy and the bureaucracy is iron law. They will go to any extreme to make reality align with the bureaucracy. For example if you build a building without permission, the police will come by with a bulldozer, demolish your building, dispose of the remains, and then bill you for it. Even if the building is hosting the world's first AGI, or whatever extremely important thing you can think of - there is no excuse for not complying with the bureaucracy. Whereas the US would allow you to keep it and maybe pay a fine.
          1. pyrale · · focus · HN ↗
            > but there is a lot of bureaucracy and the bureaucracy is iron law.

            Yeah, an organized and powerful administration is the basis of rule-of-law system. The opposite isn't entrepreneurship, it's a state of widespread corruption where laws are toothless.

            It doesn't benefit upstarts who want a fair environment to start a business, it benefits megacorps with their own militia of lawyers to bend the rules, and pockets deep enough to lobby for the removal of rules that can't be bent.

            1. mitxela · · focus · HN ↗
              The optimal amount of crime is not zero. If someone does an illegal thing but it turns out to be good for society, it should be permitted, then legalized.
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