Absolutely agree; but it's never too late to react. Europe could impose tariffs on US tech or forbid it altogether to bid on government contracts. Etc.
What are we waiting for.
What are we waiting for.
it would be so disruptive that europe would have to make and use an alternative, and then the US could not regain that market
In Europe there's Weego or whatever it's called which is just a standardized QR code layer on top of the instant SEPA payments you can already do?
Sideloading is not at option from 2027 since it will be made much much more difficult than it is today, requiring users to enable it via developer options and wait 24 hours.
Pretty sure they will order 3rd party stores to open up. Sure, iPhone users are f'ked but at least Android will prove itself.
For Europe to become fully self-sufficient when it comes to defense, for one thing.
The world has the technology. Canada has the resources and the manufacturing capacity. Europe has the money. It can be done.
Look at Ukraine. They are becoming a military superpower in terms of technology and experience.
Aside 1: there are quite some areas where European weapon systems are state of the art, but you won't hear about that unless you are more in the know. The US is hurting itself here in a big way. Going alone = $$$$$$$$$$$$
Aside 2: The European Union has been conceived as an 'ever closer union' from the beginning as to lower the likelihood of new wars on the continent; something the USA pushed us to btw post-WOII. Canada and Australia have raw materials, something which Europe doesn't have abundantly. Sharing development costs across the free world is mainly why you see Canada, Japan, Australia etc having a heightened interest in Europe. There is world-wide a lot of interest in the European defense sector, but South Korea and Israel have also interesting defense sectors.
I think Israel has become politically just as toxic as the USA (or moreso even). It seems incredibly unwise to make your defense industry dependent on a currently openly warmongering genocidal state.
Israeli?
edit: why was this downvoted lol, am I missing some meme about "Israelian"? That's not a word.
I also think there is a huge difference between america's political toxicity, where the concern is directly about things the USA might do to the country in question vs Israel where unless you are in the middle east its more indirect concern for a third party. When times get tough, its easy to forget about third parties, you can't forget if you are the one who is the victim.
Which is probably why you see a lot of Israeli arms deals are with countries that are nervous about their neighbours. e.g. Greece just bought a 4 billion dollar missile defense system from Israel. Presumably because they are nervous about Turkey's increasingly aggressive stance.
that was a significant different europe than today.
What is different for post-war Europe is that the USA forced Europe to stop developing their own complex central pieces, making Europe fully dependent on the USA. These pieces are critical and expensive and forces/limits the design parameters of connected systems. This handicapped a lot of Europe grown hardware. These critical dependencies are getting patched away atm, but that will take time because they are complex and expensive.
Firstly, yes Europe and its allies are rapidly becoming more capable and are now funding said capabilities.
Secondly, it sadness me to see people cheering on the growth of the war/defense sector.
Tao Te Ching - Chapter 46
When the Way governs the world,
The proud stallions drag dung carriages.
When the Way is lost to the world,
War horses are bred outside the city.
Sure, they were the world's largest producer of raw uranium ores until 2009, since which they've run second.
But it's simply wrong to claim Canada doesn't engage in raw mineral refinement, still to this day the McClean Lake uranium mill remains one of the world’s largest uranium processing facilities producing refined Triuranium octoxide (U3O8).
For example, Germany now expects America involvement in Ukraine despite Germany funding the war against Ukraine for years with their purchase of Russian oil
The world seems unhappy unless American kids are dying for them. Their own children are unwilling to do so, but little Jimmy from iowa is supposed to.
If you want to know why Americans support trump it's because Americans of my generation knew American kids who died fighting for foreign countries. Nothing radicalizes a population more.
The US couldn't be talked down from its Desert War follies, Gulf War (1990) was a 42-country coalition which runs counter to "Their own children are unwilling to do so, but little Jimmy from iowa is supposed to".
The follow up, post 9/11, was US led misplaced revenge stupidity with a weaker coalition of the essentially unwilling doing their insufficient best to talk an enraged bull on steroids down - the Afghanistan chapter was more pure "US way is the only way" own goal.
Now that you've elected Trump, he's the made a world less safe for all, US citizens included.
But what might work would be if the EU dropped back to the minimum copyright term of the Berne Convention - 50 years. Preferably measured from first publication.
That was the EUs top priority. The other issue was that each country had its own products they didn't want to lose sales from.
More generally, the EU isn't built for a world of presidential powers exercised at whom, which is becoming more of an issue this decade.
For the most part, the rules based international order is built around the idea that following it is in everyone's best interest and going against it will have negative consequences. That is why it has lasted so long.
Its not literally followed rigidly, but there are certain norms that are followed 90% of the time, and that makes things more predictable which is a good thing.
How often are diplomats executed to send a message to there home country? Basically never. That is the system. Its far from perfect, definitely not comprehensive, but does do some good every now and then.
Again, what is meant by a rule based order is not that there are solid rules upheld consistently as in criminal law, just that there are norms which are usually obeyed.
But you already had that - this tariffs “deal” was just extortion, adding a tax for nothing
Why did intel sharing stop ? To extract more from the EU: extortion
The Ukraine is bleeding and getting destroyed, day by day. And things are getting worse, by Russian reciprocal responses, for every escalation success Ukraine has achieved.
Recent examples: Attack ships in Azov sea -> Odessa ports essentially blocked, attack Russian warehouses -> your warehouses are getting destroyed.
What path of victory do you see enabled by US (or EU, for that matter) actions? It is just prolonging the war, by giving the Ukraine (and gullible western audience) an illusion that Ukraine can win it.
> In that sense some choices are more worthwhile than others, even when they involve concessions to a bully. So, despite recent Gallup poll showing that majority of Ukrainians are for negotiated end of the conflict a.s.a.p. https://news.gallup.com/poll/711992/ukrainians-sour-washingt..., it is worthwhile for European powers to give concessions to Trump, to achieve what? To bleed Russia more and hope that it somehow collapses (or suddenly decides to give up)? Despite the very real (bloody!) costs to Ukraine?
Responsible governance around something like when and how to retaliate (if at all) against tariffs comes down to one of the most fundamental forces of economics and trade: real leverage. Whether or not the US should exercise its leverage to attain outsized and favorable terms on the economic stage is the peanut gallery conversation that happens on social media. The two worlds couldn't be farther apart. What will actually happen in the end is just a math equation that has never changed and will never change.