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Comment by socialdemocrat | Hacker News Reader

Because Europe has not legalized corruption to the same degree as the US. Massive campaign contributions is not as common in Europe, hence large European multi-nationals likely don't have the same opportunity to change regulations to serve them.

Of course they can still influence politicians by talking about all the jobs they will provide etc. Also power in Europe is not centralized the same way as it is in the US. In the US you can lobby Washington DC.

American lobbyist companies started swarming Brüssels as soon as the EU started gaining more power over national legislation.

So there is potential for the EU to head in the US direction, but it isn't quite there yet.

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> Massive campaign contributions is not as common in Europe

Also far more complex - the political groupings in europe (EPP, ALDE, etc) are far looser organizations than the US parties, and power is spread in lots of different levels. Most Euro countries are coalitions of smaller parties too, defence in depth.

The US and UK suffer from having just two parties that from time to time get all the power. Infiltrate one party and your time will come. Infiltrate both and you're safe.

"EU paid Airbus billions in illegal subsidies, WTO rules": https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44120525

“ WTO says U.S. failed to halt state tax subsidy for Boeing”: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-usa-aircraft-wto/wto-s...

I did not argue the opposite.

Positions on HN should be "comprehensive" w.r.t data, no?

Looking at how Gazprom is buying EU politicians wholesale ...

Could you provide a link?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schröder criticism section

> Brüssels

Please stop that. Brussels is the English name for the city and clearly that letter does not exist in English. Alternatives are "Brussel" (Dutch) and "Bruxelles" (French). The closest to what you wrote is the German "Brüssel" (no S).

Br[ü|u][x][s]sel[le]s?

Most elements of that power set are not valid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut

It is funny how you think there is no corruption in Brussels. Of course it is there! The rules of the game are though that we don't touch our own Corporations. So Brussels will look the other way when VW cheats their customers in the US and Washington won't care when let's say Google has its way in EU. The real difference is that corruption is somehow legalized in the USA (a.k.a "lobbying") while it's not in the EU, so you will just not know about VW CEO hadling bags of money to Brussels unelected environnmental commissar.

socialdemocrat didn't claim no corruption, simply not the same degree.

Corruption in Europe is different, and often more subtle, than in the US (have lived and worked in both) but I do feel that over the 30 years the US has really gotten a lot worse compared to the EU countries.

Eastern EU countries would disagree.

The corruption also flourished during communism, but in different apparent form. Before communism, I don't know. (But the Habsburg empires I expect were deeply corrupt too - but the "west" was deeply corrupt too so it also gets difficult to compare.)

Sadly, that's a fair point.

But that's at a "state" level.

Have you ever looked at the list of companies, which mwere massively fined by the EU?

It's not that European companies get the kid glove treatment if they violate the law.

yeah, but they will not attempt destroying them financially too. EU fines US companies as if it wanted to get rid of them from the market. Not like it'd like to just fine them.

Also, note, how during Trump presidency EU is so much more cautious with that. Cynic in me says that's the proof that it is and has always been political. US can go after VW, MB, BMW, Porsche, Siemens, etc. There is no way that no federal laws are violated with the scale od operations these companies have in the US. All it takes is skilled and ambitious US Attorney General on Trump orders. Look at Lufthansa. All they need to do, and there were gossips about it being implemented already, is to ban electronics on flights to the US due to "battery self-ignition risk". But exempt US based carriers. Remember customer is always right. And Germany's BEST customer (who also happens to provide military security) is the US. Some people in EU seem not to grasp this simple truth

> Because Europe has not legalized corruption to the same degree as the US.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/suspicions-of-...

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