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opticd t1_j23058j wrote

Reply to comment by Ronbergs in Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts by Brook030

Honestly, the US is really unique in that the government seems dead set on destroying its tech industry. The media has a ton of reason for targeting US tech (disrupted their ads model) and the general public has basically eaten it up wholesale. Every other country is desperate for (e.g. any EU country) or protective of (e.g. China) tech companies and the US seems dead set on shitting all over theirs (on both sides of the aisle).

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Ronbergs t1_j233k3n wrote

The EU has actually been putting more restrictions than most from what ive seen. China has immensely strict restrictions on its tech industry, just ask Jack Ma. And up till Facebook incurred the wrath of Dems by using its power to propagandize voters, tech companies have had free reign in the US. Still do in most ways.

I dont see the US trying to destroy the tech industry at all. Tech companies can do almost anything they want. The only one thats got much of the governments wrath is FB and now maybe Tik Tok (same reason as FB).

My point was more that the GOP is actively harming the economy at every turn, which has been terrible for everyones finances.

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opticd t1_j234agd wrote

The EU is putting up a ton but it’s primarily intended to target US tech companies and the EU has come out before saying that they’re doing it to “level the playing field” and to help “the next Google to be founded in Europe.” It’s basically thinly veiled protectionism.

The US isn’t as aggressive, though the current FTC is pretty hawkish to domestic tech companies. Congress is primarily in a jawbone posture at the moment but that’s still a sharp contrast to other countries that heavily protect (and in some cases take active measures like stealing tech) for domestic tech companies.

I do think the GOP is maybe slightly more aggro toward tech. I think it’s primarily intended because they want ownership on online platforms that’ll allow them to control speech. You see a ton of grandstanding from the left intended to target tech companies too (just look at what Warren, Klobuchar, and others have said/done in the space). It’s kind of like comparing “Wants to obliterate and control” to “Actively dislikes/despises”. Not sure either party is really favorable toward tech IMO.

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dungone t1_j235eb4 wrote

EU policies are there to protect smaller EU startups against US tech giants. The EU is much better than the US when it comes to grants and tax breaks to small tech startups. But it lacks the private VC funds that had fueled the Silicon Valley tech giants but also turned American Tech into a laughing stock in the past few years.

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Ronbergs t1_j239td8 wrote

Everything you said is absolutely right. Im not trying to slight the EU, they have an objectively better system than the US with this stuff... and almost everything else.

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tickleMyBigPoop t1_j24ip5o wrote

> but also turned American Tech into a laughing stock in the past few years.

US tech still dominates even in the startup area. EU tech is still a joke.

If the US really wanted to shatter european chances of competing it would simply grant visas on demand to any european citizen with a tech degree/background.

I have many european coworkers working really hard on coming over here because they'd instantly get a 3x salary increase and a 50% reduction in taxes and that's not even talkign about equity comp.

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dungone t1_j24ka8d wrote

It's a laughing stock because it enables fraudsters to separate idiot investors from their money, not because you have a friend who came to the US for a job. The VC industry is full of bloviating billionaires who lose their money on things like Theranos, WeWorks, Uber, Twitter, Tesla, Juicero, and every conceivable cropto ponzi scheme, and then try to take their bad decisions out on the rest of us by calling for mass layoffs of tech workers. They are a laughing stock.

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tickleMyBigPoop t1_j24me8r wrote

Is that why it still attracts more international investment capital than the European tech market?

For all the companies that flopped or pulled an FTX/theranos there’s even more the succeeded in generating returns. Europeans won’t ever have a comparable tech sector because they lack the risk tolerance.

Just the entrepreneurial cultures are totally different where in the US if you fail then you do it again and everyone is totally cool with that. Including investors. I think Sweden is the country that’s comparable when it comes to startup risk tolerance, at least that’s from what i saw doing projects across Europe.

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dungone t1_j24siya wrote

I believe a large chunk of the foreign investment comes from the Saudi royals who are famous for squandering their nation's wealth on hairbrained projects.

The number of startups in the USA is actually at an all time low. And in case you haven't noticed, the valuations of American tech companies are experiencing a massive correction.

"Risk tolerance" is just another way of saying that you're vulnerable to grifters. And indeed, that's what American tech has become synonymous for this year. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/29/tech-grifter-sbf-elizabeth-holmes-therano-ftx

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tickleMyBigPoop t1_j24toqe wrote

Just use any excuse you have to ignore the fact the european tech sector basically doesn't exist when compared to the US tech sector outside of one company that makes photolithography machines, and that no one in the world cares to invest in it relative to the US tech sector.

as you post on reddit, which is hosted on AWS, which runs on servers with Intel or AMD cpus

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dungone t1_j24uycv wrote

90% of the world's advanced microchips are made with European technology. And ARM architectures are European. It's an existential crisis for AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia, etc., who are fighting to try to buy it. At this point American computer hardware is very much dependent on foreign technology and is using government protectionist policies and subsidies to stay afloat. Meanwhile, the EU is very much investing in chip design and foundries and they will not be beholden to any foreign countries.

American tech industry is famous for consumer-focused get-rich-quick schemes. This is a very big problem for Silicon Valley - it is always looking for the next consumer trend, like the fashion industry. The EU has long been making longer term bets on technology for their existing industrial and commercial base. For example, Italy has almost as much industrial robots as the USA, while Germany and Sweden have far more. And there are plenty of EU startups focusing on that space. As another example, there are plenty of agri-tech startups in the EU that receive lots of funding. As another example, while American banks are still running on code written in the 1960's, countries like Spain and Germany are leading the way in developing high quality modern banking software. Even the governments of the EU are investing in gov-tech which includes everything from electronic voting to collaborative law editors for legislative bodies. EU is solving a lot of "boring" stuff that the USA can't touch, such as having a single app that lets you plan your trips and pay for any train, bus, taxi, bike, scooter, rickshaw, and any other form of transportation across all of Europe.

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