I look at a lot of articles from The Guardian and I'd say the UK seems to be in full on disaster mode, whether it is the government trying to criminalize dissent because everyone from labor unions to schoolchildren to right wing anti-immigrant folks are protesting. Inflation is really out of control, fresh veggies are missing from the supermarket, the "small boats" situation makes any concern people have about the border in the US seem like nothing.
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-beaches-sewage-eng...
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62813573
[1] https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uks-most-polluted-beac...
[1] https://news.sky.com/story/huge-increase-in-raw-sewage-relea...
[1] https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/sewage-britains-rivers-...
Source: I live in the UK and still eat fresh veggies.
Perhaps so. But from my perspective of Australia the UK looks as if it's on the slide (I'm not smug when saying that as I reckon things here aren't much better, we've always been a mob of ostriches).
My family/cultural heritage is mostly UK so I have no pleasure in watching the decline. I've also relatives in the US and France and I've lived and worked in both Europe including the UK and the US so I view what's happening from a broad Western perspective and I'm very gloomy about what I see.
It's too complicated to give a quick summary of the problems but if forced to do so in a sentence then I'd say it's cultural. The West is being driven apart by widening ideological views, there's less cohesion, fewer common values and aspirations now than there once was.
On the other hand, the exact opposite is happening in Asia, people there know their time has come and that confidence and optimism drives cohesion and common values.
BTW, I worked in Asia for a while so I've some feeling for what's happening there.
The Economist avoids "shit news" as well as news about sports (What Six Nations?) and is not so negative as The Guardian but doesn't paint a picture too different about the general disorder or Brexit being a disaster.
"I watch a lot of Fox news and.."
Technology is one of the best indicators of power, progress, societal dynamism and hope for the future.
> - The US is still at a trade deficit with Europe despite the strength in dominating Internet technologies.
Who cares? The US has trade deficits with mexico too.
> - US society is much more polarized than Europe both in economic equality and political affiliation.
Last I checked, there isn't a war in the US and the US didn't lose a member like europe did with brexit.
> Some like Spotify or Arm might ring a bell.
Arm is owned by nvidia. Spotify?
> So a European citizen can buy Apple stock and profit in the same way as an American one.
Is that what we are talking about? Trading stocks internationally?
Man, there are quite a few people here really hoping europe stays weak and stagnant - especially technology-wise. Wonder why. I guess trading apple stock is the same thing as being able to create apple.
Do you think people in Europe don't get to use American technology, and vice versa? In a globalized world, it doesn't matter much where something is invented. Very few things are banned for export (mainly weapons and other military things).
>there isn't a war in the US and the US didn't lose a member like europe did with brexit.
Way to contradict yourself. First you imply that a country is in Europe if it's there geographically speaking, but the very next moment you imply that a country isn't part of Europe if it leaves the EU. Which one is it? Ukraine and Russia have never been in the EU, and the UK is still in Europe geographically.
>Is that what we are talking about? Trading stocks internationally?
What are you exactly talking about then? You seem to imply that American tech companies are only serving the interest of the US.
>Man, there are quite a few people here really hoping europe stays weak and stagnant - especially technology-wise. Wonder why.
Let me tell you why you might think that: Europe and the US are very different in many aspects. Sure, the collective wealth and might the US have is more than that of Europe, but the quality of life on average is arguably better in Europe. While nobody in Europe hopes that Europe "stays weak and stagnant", it is true that not many in Europe want to live in a country like the US, where legislation is pro-corporation at the expense of the people; the national budget is spent on military to protect the country's super power status while people don't have access to universal health care nor high quality public education; and where the government is in a constant grid lock due to radical polarization. It's a trade off most people are happy to make.
I for one am happy to be in Europe, where there is still at least some consideration going on about certain kinds of technology usage. We do not yet have a social credit system, at least that I know of, and some of us are trying to stay off the highway to dystopia surveillance state.
What exactly do you mean by the phrase I quoted? What usage of technology? Or the invention of it? The regulations about it? Just saying "technology" is quite vague.
> Technology is one of the best indicators of power, progress, societal dynamism and hope for the future.
It certainly is, but there are many other variables to consider. European want at least some balance with other values which we consider important. Equality, privacy, healthcare. Just to name a few.
You mention the UK leaving the EU. They left because they felt restricted by the rules of the single market and wanted to unleash their capitalism more akin to the US. Look where it led them. To utter chaos and lack of tomatoes. European countries are too small to give birth to super tech champions at the same rate as the US and Europe historically has not enough VC capital, but we do have a strong SME segment. Companies which are world leaders in their segment.
Europe isn't in decline in the sense that it isn't a great place to life.
Counterpoints:
- The US is still at a trade deficit with Europe despite the strength in dominating Internet technologies.
- US society is much more polarized than Europe both in economic equality and political affiliation.
- Europe has some tech unicorns. Some like Spotify or Arm might ring a bell. But then again does it really matter where something is incorporated? Financial markets are very globalized anyway. So a European citizen can buy Apple stock and profit in the same way as an American one. Some holds the other way. The German car makers raking in billions each year are owned by international investors all over. The
Last on Greentech: there are players such as Vestas and Siemens very much involved in renewables.