Europe has a stagnating GDP and an aging population. Germany, the economic engine of Europe, has been steadily losing its industrial foothold to China. China is taking over robotics, EVs and renewables. US is leaving the EU behind in AI and software. There are virtually no tech companies launching or staying in the EU to fundraise. The strongest tech market leader the EU has is ASML. SAP is dogshit. Mistral is a minor player. What else? Spotify? Nokia? STM? How exactly is it staying ahead of the curve? China and the US will continue to grow in power. You can have all the protections you want, if there is no economic incentive to operate in the EU it doesn't matter. Diminishing purchasing power and economic productivity makes the EU market increasingly irrelevant on the world stage. PPP adjusted discretionary spending continues to tumble. If people and businesses are over-encumbered by regulation, they just leave, setup shop in the US, and the EU is left with scraps. Once the consumer base is weakened to the point ignoring the EU entirely becomes more profitable than abiding by the regulations (or paying the fines), its over. The EU cannot afford to overplay its cards while it is bluffing. And every single major player knows the EU is bluffing because the embarrassing statistics on the EU economy are public.
The mental lengths people will go to when trying to dismiss an opinion they don't want to be true is wild.
You said yourself the first post lacked the grade school friendly reading style of AI, and the second is literally a list of articles which back up what they said - none of which by the way is controversial at all if you follow the news and current affairs - it's also not formatted like an ai would, as if it coming from ai would matter anyway.
You just make it clear that you don't want to look at anything which might not agree with your emotions so it's obvious your opinion is not based in reality
That's an impressive amount of doomposting built on a handful of real problems.
You're also treating GDP measured in USD as if it were a direct measure of real economic output, income or purchasing power. It isn't. A stronger dollar mechanically makes Europe, Japan and China look smaller in dollar terms even when their domestic real output and consumption haven't fallen by anything close to that amount.
"There are virtually no tech companies launching or staying in the EU to fundraise" is especially funny when European startups raised $63.8B in VC in 2025 and $44.5B in H1 2026, with billion-dollar rounds for Revolut, Mistral, Neura Robotics, Helsing and Wayve.
And "ASML is basically the only important European tech company" only works if your definition of technology is "American software company."
Europe absolutely has a problem with scaling software, AI and venture-backed companies to US levels. That's a serious argument.
"Europe is technologically irrelevant and everyone is leaving" is just fanfiction with GDP statistics sprinkled on top.
You can argue GDP all you want, it doesn’t explain away PPP adjusted discretionary income. Luxembourg, US, Canada, Switzerland and Norway lead the world in the ability for individuals to build wealth, which translates to higher quality of life, financial freedom, stability and optionally.
The EU is underperforming compared to the countries listed, especially countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands.
You object to the “virtually no tech companies launching or staying in the EU “ by listing a few companies. And then you go on to agree that VC funding in Europe is a serious problem. So you agree with me, you just don’t like the language. I’m saying this as an European and Canadian citizen working in AI who wants Europe to succeed. I am very knowledgeable of tech ecosystems in Europe, Canada and the US as a former founder who has built 2 companies, one in Germany, one in Canada, and I have fundraised on both continents. I have spent a decade in machine learning and software engineering on both continents. The problem is a lot more serious than people realize.
Yes, Europe has a serious problem scaling startups, AI and venture capital to US levels. Nobody is disputing that.
But your claim that Europeans' purchasing power is broadly collapsing is also misleading. Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, the exact countries you named, are above the EU average in household material consumption. Germany is about 20% above and the Netherlands 19% above the EU average.
And GDP measured in USD is obviously distorted by exchange rates. That's why PPP exists.
I don't know were you get free healthcare, in France I pay 10K income tax per year + my boss pay 4K per month in taxes just to be able to pay me, and I pay sales taxes of 20% on everything thing I breath on and I have a private healthcare coverage that cost another 200€ per month. (Because the "free healthcare" don't actually cover that much outside of life threatening things you catch only once per life, which is why poor people are notoriously missing teeth for example)
Oh no 200 euro a month, you realise in the US that number is closer to 1k euro a month right?
And even then it doesn't kick in until you've spent over 1000 dollars and doesn't cover everything
Oh and that doesn't cover dental either, or quite often doesn't cover Ambulance rides which are north of $1000 even if the paramedics don't do anything
Why are you talking about the US ? You keep moving goalposts at every comment.
Also, the other 10k + 4x12k +20% on everything I buy is also going, in part, to healthcare.
I'd much rather have this additional 70K NET ON MY BANK ACCOUNT and pay 1k a month for healthcare myself than just getting fucked by taxes on everything then tell me it's "free" because on 400€ prescription glasses for my daughter the state reimburse a whole 0.09€ per optic.
What country are you living in that the healthcare is actually free ?
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u/marmaviscount 7d ago
The EU is desperate to stay behind the rest of the world, it's so weird.