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Comment by acjohnson55 | Hacker News Reader

It strikes me that the EU and the USA are really going in different directions in governmental philosophy.

The EU seems to be moving toward regulation to assure QoS (if you will) for consumers and harmonization across jurisdictions, relying on business to make do within centrally established frameworks.

The USA, on the other hand, is moving toward empowerment of established interests and relying on self-organization on the governmental and business levels to hopefully produce ideal outcomes. I see this happening in the rulings on net neutrality, electoral regulation, and IP. It seems to be driven by all three branches of government. I guess we'll see if the upcoming Aereo SCOTUS decision continues this trend.

I'm sure this abstraction is super-leaky...

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I just know that I never hear about consumer protection regulation in the US any more. I only hear about it in Europe. I think that in the US consumer protection got thrown under the bus in the general move toward laissez-faire in the 80s and 90s.

> It strikes me that the EU and the USA are really going in different directions in governmental philosophy.

You don't have the right perspective: The EU project since 2008 has show all of its flaws. It has been heavily jeopardized and it's in the brink of collapse. All these politicians in Brussels are not directly elected. Actually there's a huge discussion if they should be considered elected or appointed. Since the -crisis stepped in, the European Parliament has been reduced into a Clown. No decision is being made there and it's seen by the entire north and south as the mother of all evils. Germany is in control now.

So in order to get back some support, it is trying to become more social. Up until now the only good thing that ever came it was the ridiculous USB thing (where companies all use USB adapters and not different forms). Other than that, it did nothing to promote the values theoretically stands for.

And if all this sound naive, mind you, in my country Euro-philes were at a rate of 95% up until 2007, now it's less than 35%... They don't make gallops because local politicians are afraid of the results

> All these politicians in Brussels are not directly elected.

I don't believe that's correct. Since 1979, every member state has elected MEPs.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/map.html

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