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Comment by InsideOutSanta | Hacker News Reader

It's interesting to me that people generally see Europe's regulations as interfering with entrepreneurship, while they see American decisions that give more power to multinational corporations at the expense of smaller companies as a normal part of a free market.

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Don't you see that the same bureaucracy that adds friction to entrepreneurship also serves the purpose of protecting the incumbents?

It is odious to start a company in the EU. There are many accounts of this on HN itself.

Starting a company is not the hard part of staring a company in any country. Many many companies do exist in the EU. It might be annoying but it's obviously hardly insurmountable.

Onerous?

> It is odious to start a company in the EU.

This is false.

> There are many accounts of this on HN itself.

Yes, I saw one just recently where the poster made obviously false statements about starting a company in Germany.

(Before you downvote this comment, please note that I have started multiple companies in the EU. I'm speaking from personal experience, not from something I've read on Hacker News.)

"…as a normal part of a free market."

That's unfettered capitalism at work—"free" implies no bounds. Multinational corporations have never been more powerful now than at anytime in history.

And that hurts the free market. A free market should be transparent, have low barriers to entry, and not be dominated by monopolies or cartels. There's nothing free about American capitalism.

> "free" implies no bounds

No bounds for whom?

Your implied premise is that private companies cannot impede others' freedom, which isn't true. In unfettered capitalism, only the largest corporations have the power and money to be free.

well you see, maybe one day they'll be the CEO of that multi-trillion dollar company, so it's better to err on the side of capitalism. /s

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