| > The Internet doesn't seem to have had this effect. This is both correct and incorrect. US and China tech did totally skyrocket in the 21st century and pulled the GDPs of both the US and China up like mad. The one western continent that had none of the Google, Amazon, Netflix, Alibaba, Tencen, Micron, SK Hynix, NVidia, that's nowhere in drones, etc. saw his GDP (in USD and inflation adjusted) barely moving and that'd be the EU. The EU now has an economy based, as someone pointed out the other day, on selling overpriced "luxury" (at least pretending to be luxury) handbags assembled in China: in the Top 100 companies by market cap besides ASML the EU has L'Oreal and LVMH. That and fake public companies that are actual state monopolies (like spanish banks and french oil companies). It's really totally pathetic. The EU, even though the public debt of its countries grew like mad, is where to look at to see a continent that had hardly any GDP growth in the 21st century. But I'd say that it's precisely because the EU missed the Internet: it was all chinese (and now asian too) tech companies. If this first quarter of the 21st century is of any indication, it looks like history is repeating: the EU is, once again, absolutely nowhere when it comes to AI (yay, Mistral, but we all know how that one is doing) and shall, once again, continue to see the public debt of its countries grow like there's no tomorrow (France is at 6% deficit of its GDP seen the insane spending of the state) and its GDP hardly move at all. But AI leading to no growth in the US and in Asia? I think it's a bit early to call that. |
It is however crystal clear in what direction both your examples are headed and I’m not sure it’s the wonderland you seem to think it is. China is an authoritarian hell-hole and the US is.. I don’t know there is even a word for it. Let’s just say I’m glad to be on this side of the pond.