Comment by haaz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by haaz | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Glad to see that people on hackernews know more about the costs of EU regulation than Jim Ratcliffe, James Dyson, Tim Martin etc.

Just look at the AI act, GDPR, and how the EU shot their tech sector in the foot with these.

If being in the EU was so great then why don't Norway or Switzerland join?

I am an EU citizen and it is extremely convenient in my personal life (common currency, no visas, my sim card works everywhere) but I'm also aware that the most effective governments are city states such as Singapore or heavily decentralized states like UAE, Switzerland, Denmark, even China and up until recently the US and UK. The EU creates far more regulations, red tape, and friction than the single market removes, and tying the fate of the UK to dying economies like Germany and France does no one any good.

> If being in the EU was so great, then why don't Norway or Switzerland join?

https://www.ft.com/content/5c8a871f-9a49-45f4-9ac0-543a608a5...

https://archive.is/dCYJG

> If being in the EU was so great then why don't Norway or Switzerland join?

I'm not an economist nor am I an European citizen, but both of those countries have very successful and wealthy economies. It doesn't seem necessary or advantageous for them to join the EU as, if anything, introducing a second currency and new laws that are tied to many other countries' prosperity would just risk destabilization. If the situation for either country changes in the future, it might make more sense for them to join at that point, but as of the moment they have no need or widespread desire to. Last I heard, Switzerland is even voting on whether to cap their population, which would prob not fly in the EU.

...heavily decentralized Switzerland...? What does this even mean? Care to explain, if there is anything to explain of course? And no-regulations Switzerland? I don't know the other countries but if at least one example is completely imaginary, the rest kinda lose their strength in my view.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com