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I dont care whether it's big or small, if it's a US business I'd rather shop elsewhere. Voting with our wallets is pretty much the only option for a normal EU citizen to show what we think of this current shitshow.
And you know what, I want the businesses in the US to feel the effect of those tariffs. They voted for them, I sure as hell am not going to stop them from enjoying the consequences.
As much as I wanted to say almost half of the people didn’t vote for this, I agree we probably deserved it.
If anything, I feel like US currently is a warning sign of things to come for the rest of the Western world. I feel bad for my American friends, but I can only hope that this weird political experiment ends up badly enough that other countries take note and avoid going down the same route.
Hopefully it will be like our own homebrewed shitstorm, Brexit. I thank Brits for their service in fucking up so massively that hardly anyone still within the EU talks about leaving the EU anymore.
Because it doesn't matter if its big or small. If it's American, it pays taxes in the US, it's boycotted.
Do you think the current US regime is being selective about the size of EU companies that are being hit by their unwarranted tariffs? Of course not.
Nor will we.
Big EU business is definitely less problematic right now than big US business. Granted, they're often trying to be as bad.
Business with the US leads to tax payments to the US government.
Doing business with the US is very risky right now if you're in any way locked-in, they might start imposing tariffs, steal your data, be generally fascist or just get put out of business by government policy at any moment. And part of the way we're locked in is that in many fields, there are no or nearly no european competitors who can supply the goods at a similar price and performance.
From a purely egoistic perspective, it's generally better to support local small business instead of overseas small business.
I agree with the support of local businesses’ perspective. However, EU companies are also vulnerable to policy changes like the recent Italy DNS poisoning law or the France encryption backdoor law just last month. Supporting a small business also comes with fostering a community. Especially if it’s FOSS, a subculture, or minority-owned.
True, but none of these are good arguments for choosing US businesses over EU businesses when you're an EU resident. Why should I support a US-based community, subculture, minority when I could support the same kinds of things in my own country or neighboring countries?
@dangling_cat @rumschlumpel With all due respect, but thinking like that will just drive you mad. French law proposal for encryption backdoor didn't pass, BTW
The only constant in life IS change. We need to keep making the right choices, the choices that represent our values best (right now) and if we do that long enough, we might have a shot at leaving this mudball better than we found it.
It's not going to drive me mad to pick local small business over small business from a fascist state.
@rumschlumpel I meant @dangling_cat
That way of thinking, that all companies are subject to change of policy so it doesn't matter who you support... It DOES matter. A lot.
Why would Europeans pick small US businesses to shop? Do Americans give priority to buying from small EU businesses? No.
You buy from the US first, big or small, and only then do you look for alternatives outside if something doesn't exist in the US (which means, never).
The French law did not pass at all, was downvoted to hell by all representatives. There was a proposal but There is no French encryption backdoor law. Period.
Democracy in action.
There is all mics in IOT can be opened to investigations law that was passed thought, but with hard limits to the conditions of the surveillance.
Well it's EU first with that US government. Sucks to be a small US business right now but you get what you vote for. There will be people hit that don't deseve it, but there are enough who do.
YUROP STRONK TOGETHER
Please note that nationalism comes with different flavors, including Europe. It’s not you versus the entire population of the US. It’s us versus the oppressors. I agree Europeans should shop at local businesses first, but it wouldn’t harm to exempt small businesses from the exclusion.
No, it is indeed Europe vs. USA — we have no choice but to face the new realities the current Trump administration created. The tariffs will come, regardless of how many US citizens oppose them. The grab to Greenland and Canada is also very real and is not changed by the opinion of Trump‘s opponents.
We have to fight back, if we want it or not.
I say explicitly could harm. Sanctions work the best when they hit as hard and fast as possible. See how for example Russia was able to adapt their war economy to rounds of sanctions because they came in so slow. So the harder the boycott, including all US businesses as much as possible, the faster even the magats get restless with that joke of an administration.
The "nationalism comes in different flavors" argument feels very enlightened centrist to me when at the moment it's every authoritarian regime (china, russia, us musk adminstration) against the one bloc that cares about democracy.
One main reason: market consolidation in Europe is a real need. Only companies with a lot of scale can compete adequately in terms of product featureset and innovation. European alternatives usually lack scale to to compete.
In simple terms, if you're competing in an R&D heavy industry (like consumer technology, software, f.e.) having 2 or 3 big companies is always going to lead to more competitive products when compared to a market with 20 or 30 small ones. The problem with Europe is that that we don't even have 20 or 30 small ones.
Take Nothing for example, I think their idea is to compete with Apple, Google and the Chinese brands in the phone market. But they are many, many times smaller than those. So they're going to be forced to use components and technology that's already established, they're not going to innovate outside of design and simple things like UI simply because they lack the funding to do anything else.
The situation is not ideal, but unless we create our own behemoths, we won't be able to compete in the short term.
I'm not sure I understand the question. As an European buying from small startups in the US hardly ever occur... I buy from local stores, and would expect Americans to do the same.
When it comes to software, indeed I could potentially choose to buy services from American startups, but the US government has vastly different rules on privacy which results in me preferring to keep it in EU.
And then there's the whole tariff question. The point in tariffs is to minimize import from the countries affected. Which means there will be European companies which lacks sales. Buying more stuff from Europe will (hopefully) cushion that blow.
Which is also why it's buy European and not necessarily boycott USA... Though there's also some movement in that direction.
And finally there's also the part of dependency, many Europeans have found themselves dependant on American products(Microsoft, Google, apple, Facebook etc.) and with the current administration we've realised that we probably need to sever those dependencies asap.
So why do we not buy from small US startups? Because in the current political landscape, it simply doesn't make sense to send money to the USA and make ourselves more dependant and exposed to US surveillance.
I'm sorry but that's the point of a boycott. Your local Start-up or small Company loose customers to boycott?
Go, Tell others companies about it and work together. Go to the news to it. Go to your representative and Tell him/her about it. Go Tell your Friends, Family, Community about it.
Tell them, that the policies and Trade war the Orange and his "Gruselkabinett" wage against Europe and canada is hurting you, the american Citizen and more important the american Economy and entrepreneurship.
For me it's more about supporting local businesses. If we want to gain more consumer independence from the US, we need to support our own businesses, big or small. I give preference to smaller businesses of course. Of course, being purist about it is not a good thing either imo.
The thing people are wanting to accomplish is reduce the money flowing into the USA. So it doesn't matter if big or small. The businesses themselves aren't the problem, it's the economy receiving the funds at the end of the day.
Americans have to get rid of their current administration and their policies. EU, China, Canada, Mexico and other countries will continue to introduce counter-tariffs and their citizens will boycott US companies - doesn't matter if it's big or small.
I am doing both. Buying from local shops that produce inside EU. In person with the right shops i have gotten more consultation when i had questions about a product. I also see what i buy what i dont get from only