>They use American software products because frequently there are no alternatives
Hint hint
Hint hint
South Korea is a very dynamic, tech heavy country and it hasn't managed to push any software product as a market leader.
The EU is bigger, but it's fractured, so functionally it's basically 2-3x South Korea in terms of "software power". And that's not enough to compete with the much larger US juggernaut. Only China has managed to hold its own by simply banning US software all together.
I'm actually all in favor of the EU banning all American software. Fairly sure that after a huge initial tumble a healthy EU software market would thrive.
Edit: I need to brace myself, the Americans are waking up :-)))
If the current EU mindset existed 150 years ago, they would have banned steam engines because they are too loud and annoying. That's the level of shortsighted immediate gratification we are dealing with.
I don't know what SK has to do with this, they are basically still close to an emerging economy. Europe had a roaring economy when SK was still mostly farming.
The environment can absorb pollution, just not as quickly as we're currently polluting. It's okay to emit pollution sometimes. I'm totally in favor of heritage railways running their ancient smoke-belching steam trains on the third Sunday of every month so we can see them go. Just not every day.
I really like history but nothing like this come to mind, I'd be happy to read about it, what exactly did they do/not do?
Technical note: For some years, the few regions that got the OPAL optical network had the worst internet, but that problem would not have occurred with OPAL everywhere: Fiber can always be upgraded at the endpoints, the numbers were just too small to develop the technology.
Not having a silicon valley is a good thing.
Delete the US and China and all Europe has left is 6 weeks vacation.
Besides, 6 weeks vacation is great. Also we don't need to have so much stuff, I don't even own or want a car, something that's very hard to do without in America. We don't have this exhausting desire to make things a race and to be number 1.
Ever heard of China? The US probably imports 50% of its industrial parts, machinery, finished products from China.
Europe also has plenty of big industrial companies, BASF, Bayer, German auto companies, pharma companies, French and Dutch agriculture, etc.
What do you think we all do over here? Wear wooden clogs, eat baguettes with wursts?
Personally I have done both <3
In fact I really feel like a baguette with bratwurst now :P And a 6-week holiday come to think of it.
The EU also needs easier financing of risky ventures, probably with tax incentives associated.
The EU needs specific regulation to facilitate accelerated scaling across all its countries. This last part is the hardest to do because by definition startups are challenges to big and rich incumbents.
I would just ban US software companies like China did (I'd obviously also ban Chinese software companies, too). The resulting chaos would end up with some pretty solid EU software companies, the know how is there.
Estimated GDPs for 2026:
US $32tn.
EU $23tn.
It's not like the EU only has couch cushion money for investments.