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by mirekrusin 1405 days ago
Comparable move could be for US to forbid using EU hosted services to ie. store medical records of US citizens etc., no?
1 comments
wins32767 1405 days ago
No, because Germany doesn't have that big of an IT space. Aerospace and automotive would be good sectors to hit back with because they are more relatively important to Germany as IT is for the US.
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xdennis 1405 days ago
So you're essentially admitting that this is about revenge because Germany cares about its citizen's privacy and due process.
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wins32767 1405 days ago
I'm saying that if Europe decides it wants to block off parts of its economy, the US would be perfectly justified in doing the same (to everyone's detriment).

I could imagine a US based law that banned the sale of any durable goods produced by a company headquartered in a country that still got more than 5% of its power from lignite coal due to a strong climate commitment. That's tailored basically only to impact Germany. Is that fair?

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bettysdiagnose 1405 days ago
OK but not wanting our personal records to be arbitrarily sized by the US government is very reasonable. Your government made a law that lets it spy on us... that's your problem.
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wins32767 1405 days ago
I don't think it's reasonable that I'm paying more than my share of taxes for the defense capabilities that allows Europe free access to a stable world market and roughly rules based international order that underpins the export economy of Germany in particular. If Europe would fix that, I'd feel a lot worse about the spying.
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akmarinov 1405 days ago
No one’s making the US do that. Just stop the military spending.

Of course that means the US will no longer be a global superpower, but the US can freely choose that.

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bettysdiagnose 1405 days ago
Complete and utter non-sequitur but I'll humour you.

I never understood American magical thinking that blames Europe for US military spending. In the end, if you want to cut military spending, you can.

Regardless, you're the hegemon. I don't accept that you don't benefit from that position.

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wins32767 1405 days ago
I don't think it is a non-sequitur. The spying is part of the overall defense structure that enables the German export economy to function.

EDIT: It's like saying "This thing you're giving me that allows my whole economy to function, I don't like the consequences of how you're doing it."

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