Hacker News Reader

Comment by nhebb | Hacker News Reader

I think a lot of us need to admit that the author is right. I, for one, do generalize about Europe. I think of social democracies with high taxes. I think of arcane rules and regulations to start and run a business. And most of all, I limit the term "Europe" to include about 20 of the 50 European countries. I will never think of Russia as a European country. If I entered a contest and won a vacation to "Europe" - and the destination turned out to be Albania - I'd be thinking "Wat?!? That's not Europe."

From the outside, the term "Europe" is a confusing morass of distinctions. There's Europe, the Eurozone, the EU. The UN also has a geoscheme that is different than all three of those. Hell, half of Americans probably don't know the difference between England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom.

View on HN

Most British people would struggle to tell you the difference between Great Britain and the UK.

Then again, I think a fair number of Brits would state Northern Ireland (the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom) is part of Great Britain

You've also got the Channel Islands, and the Isles of Mann and Wight to contend with. Then there's the fact that one is a political union and one a union under the monarch... something like that anyway.

This video explains all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

I was unaware that the Isle of Wight had any unusual political status....

You are indeed correct; it's just a county of England.

That's a shame, I was hoping for some amusement along the lines of Berwick upon Tweed still fighting the Crimean War with the Russian Empire:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwick-upon-Tweed#Relations_wi...

> Most English people would struggle to tell you the difference between Great Britain and the UK.

FTFY

As most British people are English, if the percentage of unaware English people is high enough, then most British people would be unaware :-D

Drat, once again foiled by logic.

> I think of social democracies with high taxes. I think of arcane rules and regulations to start and run a business.

.. Aaand you'd be right about France, Germany, Spain, England, The Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Italy (and Norway, Sweden, Finland).

In other words, you'd be right about "the countries that matter" (and some that don't).

"Arcane rules and regulations to start and run a business":

Please explain what you mean by this for the Netherlands? (I say this as an expat Brit with his own business in the NL)

Fine, let's assume the Netherlands has none of those. I was mostly concerned with high taxes.

I can think of one: The CEO of a Dutch corporation (BV) needs to receive a minimum salary of €47.000 per year, even if your startup is operating at a loss. You can easily get this reduced by the tax inspector if you show a loss but it's a hassle and you can't reduce it to zero. (So you if you fund your own incorporated startup you will have to pay your saving to yourself, and lose taxes along the way)

No european will include Russia in Europe. Except, of course, the important matters like gas, football and Eurovision. Same for Israel.

Europe traditionally stops at the Urals - so a considerable part of Russia, including Moscow, is very much part of Europe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com