China is doing the same sort of thing now.
This is natural - it's just how states and markets work and use innovation.
The UK has a market of ~2% of world gdp - it's industries are bound to be 1/10 of the size of the USA's, in practice less as it will always be at a structural disadvantage.
The EU has a market approximately the same size as the USA and China. The puzzle is why the EU doesn't have dominant industries - this is especially stark in sectors that have evolved since the 1980's. Software and Computer Hardware (chips) are clearly one of these, green tech is another.
It has - cars, industrial automation and finance.
Writing on a piece of paper that there is a single common market doesn't make it so. Only a handful of really large companies (Airbus is the only one I can think of right away) can manage.
But it's not like the laws are particularly weired. I was amazed when i learned that in US it's a federal crime to posses a lobster that is too short.
It is a criminal offense to use public transport without paying in Germany.
Before Brexit, trade in the EU was a comparative breeze.
It's an absolute dogsh!t, nightmare now (from a UK perspective).
Not to worry though, the whole damn thing will collapse sooner rather than later, and then you'll be happy to watch the implosion from a comparatively safe distance...
However, we do still trade with the EU, so the current situation is less than ideal. As would be your "implosion" fantasy. Not my cup of tea, thank you.
Would you include Education? I guess that the USA dominates higher education in terms of $$ as well as prestige.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/233880/international-stu... [2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
I’m not an expert on the matter, but continental Europe is very conservative compared to the Anglo-Saxon world (here conservative doesn’t mean xenophobia and imperial units, but reluctant to change). My pet theory is that continental Europe is an older continent, where, to oversimplify, electorates understand cars but not computers.
On top of that: VCs, angel investors, etc… are not a thing, bankruptcy laws are not as good as in the UK or the US, and bureaucracy is a massive drag.
I set up a small software company in the UK, I spent probably 30£. In Italy it would have cost 5000€ just to register the company. God knows how much tax a software company pays in Italy (which is not the same as a café, which is not the same as a lawyer, which is not the same as a cleaning company, etc…).
This might explain eventual domination of aeronautical engines (Rolls Royce) and home computing platforms (Acorn, Spectrum, etc).
This does not always work in the favour of the US. I have worked in a field where have I repeatedly seen US businesses try to bring their model to Europe, buoyed by optimism from earlier expansion in the US. The European structure of this domain is simply different, leading to the new entrants being doomed before they have even opened their office.
The UK had access to such a market and was quite a large force in certain sectors like finance but then decided to just burn all bridges.
Of course the challenge in the EU is a big higher because of different languages and possibly different cultural attitudes but the UK is now learning how much harder things were back in the good old days.
Yet many farms and companies with an online store didn't even ship EU-wide. Why, just why?
Then they blame Germany for dominating. Well, yeah, they actually come and advertise their shit in other countries.
Revolut (the UKs biggest fintech unicorn) has been plotting expansion in to the US, and making it top priority, for a while now. I'm skeptical. If they can't do it, who can?