[fauigerzigerk]

I know what you're talking about, but I don't see much of that in this particular report. There's no "because socialism" here and it would be utterly ridiculous considering that "socialist European welfare state" correlates positively with "rich".

We can't discount valid criticism just because we suspect it may be motivated by the wrong political agenda. We have to ask if it's true.

Admittedly, the report doesn't make it easy to do that because it doesn't explain how exactly they calculate these rankings, and some of the sideswipes against privacy concerns are clearly misplaced and irrelevant.

But I think there can be very little doubt that Europe's digital economy is lagging badly behind the US and arguably falling further behind. If we don't wake up before the digital revolution eats Europe's auto industry and in the process ruins high tech equipment makers and robotics, we are on a trajectory to become a third world economy.