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Comment by schnitzelstoat | Hacker News Reader

Another strategy, another initiative, another commission.

> All of this AI acceleration will be monitored by an “AI Observatory” and discussed in an “Apply AI Alliance” – a refashioning of the existing AI Alliance, a stakeholder talking shop.

It reminds me of how here in Spain the Government already created the Agencia Española de Supervisión de la Inteligencia Artificial (Spanish AI Supervision Agency) when we barely have an AI industry to supervise. It creates some more cushy jobs for them to hand out though.

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“Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible.”

Exactly this happened to European hardware startups. So many certifications and directives, weee, rohs, reach, red, supply chain, sustainability, etc. Logical step as an investor is to avoid ventures, that are burning tons of money just to comply with regulations. The company I work for right now has healthy cashflow and people for regulatory topics, but it would be impossible to re-create this electronics business today.

Even if you get EU grant, you can't run a startup that way. You have to basically have full plan set in stone, and you will be checked if it was fulfilled to avoid waste of EU money.

The problem is that you cannot pivot easily, you cannot change a lot of things in it - and even things like your potential hire bailing last minute can be devastating, paperwork wise.

Sadly this + unsustainable love for social welfare will lead Europe to lose long term life quality and possible wealth. They don't like innovators there now, that is for sure.

In Spain there are half a million more people living off the government than those working in the private sector: https://theobjective.com/economia/macroeconomia/2024-09-16/a...

I think this comment is, while factual, slightly misleading. Only around 16% of people "living off the government" are public servants, from which over 50% are for essential services like education health or public safety.

Over 50% of those "living off the government" are pensioners, so mostly coming from a pool of people who already worked (and most of them in the private sector), and paid their share in taxes. In spain, the private sector makes 70% of the active workforce, while the public sector around 13%, self employed 13%, and unemployed 10%.

I know Spain (and Europe) have quite a lot of structural problems, but I fail to see how having so many pensioners has anything to do with AI regulations.

If pensions come from government funds it matters if you are looking at the impact on the economy. The taxes pensioners paid have presumably been spent, so while their past contribution is an argument for their entitlement to pensions, it does not solve the problem of where the money will come from.

Its even worse in the UK where we have a special additional income tax (NI) on earned income (things like investment income are exempt), that is higher on people with low to moderate incomes, that is primarily used to pay (current) pensions (a little bit is set aside for future pensions, but there is only enough set aside for less an an year of payments).

It does not really make a big difference if the pensioner saved 100k while working and put it in their couch, or if they payed it in ekstra taxes which got saved by the government, or if the government presses new money.

The important part is how large fraction of the population work, not where the money for the remaining fraction comes from. Money is only a representation of value, value created by the working fraction.

True, but that is at a different level and a bit more complex. I was talking about the problem of government finances - i.e. government revenue vs expenditure.

Setting aside money, and where you put it, makes a big difference. It might be in a sovereign wealth fund, or used to finance govt debt (as in the small fund that exists in the UK) or invested in shares by a private pension fund, or be a liability of a past employer. In some of those cases value might be generated in another country.

You are right in principle but there are big practical differences too.

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