Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bootsmann 792 days ago
> At a time when the EU economy is falling behind so evidently

Keep in mind that a lot of the US' current growth comes from its huge budget deficit. Europe has gotten significantly better at the commercialization aspect of research, two out of the three covid vaccines came out of Europe.

3 comments

> Keep in mind that a lot of the US' current growth comes from its huge budget deficit

I don't see that.

Most innovation in the US is from private companies and private investment.

Government spending is mostly wasteful, and on things that have little to do with growth, such as social security, medicare, military ...

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-bud...

Infrastructure in the US is crumbling, education is a disaster (esp. college costs - crippling), medical costs out of control, housing costs out of control ... It's amazing that there is at least some surface appearance of the economy being healthy, but it's really a sham.

> two out of the three covid vaccines came out of Europe

Moderna and Novavax Covid vaccines are entirely American. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was researched in Germany, but productized by Pfizer which is an American company. AstraZeneca vaccine is from UK, so yes in Europe but not in EU. Janssen vaccine was developed in Netherlands and Belgium by Janssen Vaccines, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, again an American company.

Also, Trump's Operation Warp Speed gave $1.2 billion to AstraZeneca and $1 billion to Jansen, so America funded even European vaccine development more than Europe did.

> Europe has gotten significantly better at the commercialization aspect of research, two out of the three covid vaccines came out of Europe.

This fallacy made me jump out of my seat.

I provided salient examples to underline a counterclaim to what the OP said. Where is this fallacious?

If you want a broader overview you could also start with the world innovation index which reserves its top spot to the country hosting the CERN.

You can use fancy numbers to pretend that Europe is relevant. Just like France touts its obsolete military and is constantly called on its bluff.

The reality can be seen around you. A few high profile projects doesnt change how things actually are.