What you're seeing here is why the US has such a massive amount of leverage over the EU.

The US has for some time fostered an environment where people build and grow businesses. I've started many myself, some totally for fun.

And as it happens some of those US businesses have grown into massive corporations, and yes, some not so great ones too.

I think the EU in general (not everyone of course) leans more in the realm of letting the government take care of everything.

This of course creates dependency, not just on that government, but upon companies who create things that government can't provide.

Because of that dependency upon the government, there isn't any recourse against a business' practices because at some point, the fines and penalties will fall flat.

In the US, a pretty normal response to a bad/annoying/corrupt business is: "ok cool, I'll build a competitor."

If instead of creating a culture of dependency in the EU, one of innovation and creativity was fostered instead, this point in time could be very different.

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tokai 4 hours ago | parent [-]

>I think the EU in general (not everyone of course) leans more in the realm of letting the government take care of everything.

Your understanding of business in EU countries seems to be make-believe and personal fantasy.

	▲	anthk 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>"The goverment take care"... So, like Boeing and tons of corpos too big to fail.
	▲	runarberg 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Also the picture of the US is totally fictional for the vast majority of people. The US has fostered an environment where only a tiny subset of the population can start a business. Even opening up a restaurant you are usually met with an avalanche of paperwork, of requirements to fulfill, and unless you have a lot of money to fix any issue, they rule some aspect of your business in violation. Even a tiny business like a food cart you need to make sure you keep it x meters from a public restroom, that your neighbors don‘t complaint, that you provide 2 parking spaces per gas-burner (or 3 if you use an induction stove) etc. etc.