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Comment by WastingMyTime89 | Hacker News Reader

And obviously the reason is the lack of labour reform and not the billions in handouts currently given by the US and China which the EU refuses to match because of its brain dead insistence on undistorted markets and fiscal rigour. Ah Politico, such well researched and reasonable journalism, it warms my heart…

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Is this the same Germany that last I know allowed bribes and kickbacks on international sales to be tax deductible? We lost so many contracts because the things the Germans did were illegal for a USA company.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1995-08-06/germany-w...

I have the typical American of German descent hate for Germany because they threw my family away but now are open for everyone else to come live there (making it a huge 'fuck you and your family specifically love Germany'), but also how truly horrible they behave when it comes to business.

> I have the typical American of German descent hate for Germany because they threw my family away

I've never seen this sentiment expressed before (but I'm neither of German descent nor US American). Care to expand further ?

> because its brain dead insistence on undistorted markets and fiscal rigour

The issue lies in the fact that the EU is comprised of numerous countries within a single market. When one nation begins to subsidize a company or an entire sector, the other nations are left powerless, merely watching their own companies struggle to compete against those bolstered by government subsidies. It becomes a game of pouring government money down the drain and destroying any semblance of free market mechanisms.

You should check out how EU state aid laws work. This is exactly the issue they are addressing and it is not true that we have seen a significant "subsidy race" between different EU countries in the recent past.

The US is attracting so many companies currently because they are giving out the largest government subsidies. It's nice that you're advocating for more free markets but governments are moving in another direction. And either a country can match those subsidies or they will see their industry relocate to another one.

Why aren't other EU countries facing the same problems? Also, from the article:

> BASF opened a plant near Dresden that makes cathode materials for electric-car batteries just two weeks ago and has pledged to keep investing in its home market. To secure such commitments, however, local and federal governments have been forced to offer generous incentives. BASF will receive €175 million in government support for its new battery operation, for example.

> Similarly, in June, the U.S. chipmaker Intel secured an eye-watering €10 billion subsidy for a massive new factory in the eastern city of Magdeburg. That translates into €3.3 million for each of the 3,000 jobs the company has pledged to create.

Nothing about European markets is undistorted. The most distorted of all is the view that Europe is declining out of some moral stance. The classic example is how California and the US had to go clean up Volkswagen because local regulatory authorities weren't up to snuff.

what are you referring to with "billions of handouts"?

The Inflation Reduction Act in the USA and the equivalent measures which have been taken in China but don’t have a catchy name. Both countries are currently giving subsidies to companies at an unprecedented rate.

There used to be a lot of opposition to these kinds of subsidies in the US until China started absolutely kicking America's ass because they subsidize their industries.

Private enterprise really can't compete with governments, and even less so against governments with their own sovereign currencies and the ability to subsidize forever.

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