Because, generally speaking, Europe has this thing called laws, and the government arguably exists to protect it’s “citizens”.
In the US you have this thing called lobbyists and the government unilaterally exists, only to protect it’s “corporations”
For example, in Europe McDonald’s French fries contain 3 ingredients (potato, salt, oil) and in the US there are around 20 ingredients… The US adds all that extra shit to make the frier oil last longer, to make it easier to clean, etc. and fuck you for being poor if it gives you cancer.
Europe has better frameworks in place to prevent robber barons, this is just as true for the digital age as it was 200 years ago.
The question here is why weren’t Google and the Mac and eBay all originally invented in Europe. Not why don’t the tech barons of 2026 all live in Europe.
The question is even more pointed because some of the people who invented the above were immigrants from Europe. Why did they have to leave to do their world-changing work?
Google was world-changing before it was the big tech nightmare it is today. So stop hiding behind the glory of GDPR and face the actual question.
Because, generally speaking, Europe has this thing called laws, and the government arguably exists to protect it’s “citizens”.
In the US you have this thing called lobbyists and the government unilaterally exists, only to protect it’s “corporations”
For example, in Europe McDonald’s French fries contain 3 ingredients (potato, salt, oil) and in the US there are around 20 ingredients… The US adds all that extra shit to make the frier oil last longer, to make it easier to clean, etc. and fuck you for being poor if it gives you cancer.
Europe has better frameworks in place to prevent robber barons, this is just as true for the digital age as it was 200 years ago.
The question here is why weren’t Google and the Mac and eBay all originally invented in Europe. Not why don’t the tech barons of 2026 all live in Europe.
The question is even more pointed because some of the people who invented the above were immigrants from Europe. Why did they have to leave to do their world-changing work?
Google was world-changing before it was the big tech nightmare it is today. So stop hiding behind the glory of GDPR and face the actual question.
European laws back in the 80s and 90s basically kept killing off anything that could have grown into a Google competitor.
Draconian copyright laws screwed Europe over rather hard. Took a long time for them to fix it, and by then it was too late.
Hard to build a search engine back then when you just got sued into the ground.