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Comment by agent008t | Hacker News Reader

To be fair:

1. Brexit hasn't happened yet. I.e. UK has not been able to introduce policies that would make it a lot more competitive and friendly for business than the EU/Germany, make it friendlier for international talent, which is one of the opportunities created by Brexit.

2. We do not know what would have happened had Parliament and civil service been more positive and cooperative on Brexit. It could be a self-fulfilling prophecy - remainers in Parliament inadvertently creating greater uncertainty, which in turn drives business away as the leavers are unable to realistically guarantee a more competitive / friendlier for business Britain in the future.

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The shitshow in the UK parliament wasn't because of remainers, but mostly brexiters not agreeing on what kind of brexit they want.

Could the downvoters please explain the downvoting?

Are you arguing that there is no scenario under which Brexit could make Britain a more attractive place for business than the EU or Germany?

I’m not OP, but I would argue that. There’s no realistic scenario in which leaving the single market makes Britain a more attractive place for (most) businesses.

A combination of:

1. Extremely easy and friendly immigration policies for world’s top talent - better than in the US

2. Legal ability to easily hire and fire people

3. Legal ability to run a business out of your garage

4. Lower taxes - income, corporate, capital gains - than in the US

5. Free trade, even if unilateral, as the US is involved in tariffs and trade wars

All of this combined, given that the UK is English speaking, could lead to the UK overtaking Silicon Valley in terms of startups. Most of the world’s top talent would, all else being equal, prefer to live around Cambridge than in Palo Alto.

1. Plenty of home grown top talent. Nothing wrong with recruiting further afield, but it's often used to low ball wages and rights.

2. Workers rights.

3. I've no idea why you think people don't run businesses from their homes already.

4. Depends on the government of the time, and why do you think racing to the bottom on public funding is a good thing?

5. We already have free trade. Try getting in tariff battles with no strength outside the EU.

Tbh all those points seem dubious at best.

I mostly agree with this: http://www.paulgraham.com/america.html

And I think an argument could be made that being more competitive on all those points would be easier outside the EU.

I suspect you would disagree with Paul's essay/the goals he outlined, and that's fine. My point is that if you did agree with his essay, you might see that Brexit could also open opportunities.

Thanks for the link, I'll read it later.

I wouldn't dispute there are potential benefits to Brexit, I'm saying there are no obvious winning arguments, and clear counters to all of yours.

Also by purely framing it in terms of business, you are in danger of making two errors:

1. Assuming all business has the same needs, and all business owners have the same perspective.

2. Much more importantly, business is just one factor of the national life affected by the split, and - as pointed out -has a natural tension with other issues like rights and standards that you haven't addressed.

I didn't downvote you (I posted the parent to your response) but your comment read to me as coming from a perspective skewed through Brexiteer-tinted glasses, which both Remainers and neutrals wanting objectivity might find frustrating.

I can believe there might be positive aspects for business, but pretty much all of them involve a deterioration in workers and other rights (human, animal) and standards. And generally speaking, while agility and flexibility are likely to follow from becoming newly small and skinny, I don't see how that helps when in the trading ring with very big, very strong heavyweights.

Here is how you approach this: in which scenarios would Canada become a more attractive place for business if it left the USMCA (ex NAFTA) RELATIVE to the USA or Mexico.

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