[dauertewigkeit]

IMHO, the EU needs to become more proactive when it comes to tech markets. Trying to find new ways to tax US tech megacorps is not going to cut it.

  1. Create competitive low tax regimes for EU based tech companies, both for investors and employees.

  2. Forbid buyouts by US tech companies.

  3. Become more protective of tech markets in general. For example why the fuck does AirBnB or Uber get to operate in Europe? What is there to gain? We have our own alternatives.

  4. Give preferential treatment to EU based tech companies. For example for government related contracts, why the fuck are EU governments depending on Microsoft/Google/Amazon?

  5. Prioritize tech over other lower growth industries. Yes selling petrol cars was good business 30 years ago.

[omnimus]

I think it's really clear what europe should do and it's been for a while. Now insert politics and you get governments mostly captured by US influence thanks to propaganda, lobby, deep ties and european upper class invested in US companies.

Any tech focus won't make a dent unless europe gets out of the US grip. And to do that would require huge changes in politics. So far we are seeing turn to far right which is even more tied to US (and US tech) than the current center right heading europe.

We will see. The digital tech moat US might be quite shallow. Maybe in hardware but software in europe is pretty great and most of the moat are network effects. Network effects can be dissolved much easier and faster than hard tech. But it's never been a fair fight.

[dauertewigkeit]

Yes, unfortunately it's very easy to buy our bureaucrats both at national and EU level. Heck most of them style themselves to be Americans! You make very good points.