free market? for having this you need a fair competition and this is not present in the US. too many politicians are involved in too many companies and vice versa. of course you gain winners and losers out of this but not by a fair market. the US-market is a money- and power-controlled competition.
please stand down if you don’t understand economic ethics. i know, the europeans are not really better than the US but they are a bit.

There are many things you can say about free markets and europe – but you can’t compare them to the protectionist US model and say the US is any better!

There are 27 countries in the EU – and how many in NAFTA? 3 and the largest wants to re-negotiate!

These stories to me show that the EU can operate a marketplace freely – microsofts dominance of the market place is no good for anyone and it a pity the US government is so beholden to political donations that it is unable to enact similar protection for consumers. It is arguable that M$ is not the monopoly that it once was – but this is because they have to consider what they are doing with their dominant products becuase of the EU.

The wasted tax payer money that Germany and France have decided (not the EU) to put into these two projects is probably a great disappointment to their tax payers – but it does not upset the market at all.

Please Mike stop this crap – I am soon going to run out of patience with Techcrunch.

Being German, I totally agree with you. I’m wondering if Europeans will ever understand that the free market is simply the most efficient way to discover successful innovations and that the latter cannot be imposed by government force, which – in 90% of all cases- will lead to a waste of taxpayers’ money. Thank your for the post.

Best,
A German annoyed by ever since growing socialism in Europe

But hey, 160 comments and counting

As for EU – the execution gets better by every decade
having all the eastern countries joining were fiction 20 years ago ….. trade bonds nations together and make room for peace

@159 Agree on both ….
Kim, Denmark

But I don’t see the connection.
Marc, the Netherlands

P.S. [stupid, just-for-fun] about MS to leave EU or any other place on the Earth: I think this would be the best present to Mr. Jobs. it’s already enough maybe just this rumor, for all EU IT Managers to start replacing the existing Windows PCs with new Macs? And soon Ubuntu laptops to arrive in every supermarket?
WoW, I will love this future!

(In reality, when economists say “it is possible for governments to correct market failure” and produce graphs demonstrating this, what they mean is “it is possible for an immortal, eternally benevolent and eternally omniscient super-being to correct market failure”. Governments, on the other hand, always f— things up in the long term because their only incentives are perverse ones.)

FYI: Dunno about you guys, but I certainly don’t read this blog for the sake of sharing Michael’s grand polit-economical ideals. It’s the technology news we’re interested in, not this pile of non-sense.

It’s strange how obvious it is that Yanks didn’t industrialise untill after Europe figured out it requires a few extra laws to keep the whole thing in check. Because if you leave things up to the market individual people are just gonna end up abused.

And “Orientals”?? WTF!? The use of that phrase speaks volumes about the extent of your worldly knowledge. If you don’t know what I’m talking about the you might just want to stick to Fox news from now on okay?

And by the way, when did I ever say I was from Europe? Unfortunately, your two paragraphs of childish teasing were for nothing (except to reveal the startling limitations of your debating skills).

So, while you will sleep soundly tonight knowing this lady ( http://tinyurl.com/ysfkvg ) is watching over you like a loving mother, borrowing from your neighbor to buy you your EU-spec vitamins and shielding you in her arms from any evil American who knocks on your door, I will sleep well knowing the modest income I provide affords my Chinese friends with the opportunity to buy real medicine and shucks perhaps even a real copy of Windows Vista.

To put it simply, I’m very disappointed. I’m not taking an approach like “I’ll never read TechCrunch anymore” but this article definitely put your your journalistic capabilities in doubt.

I’ve lived and worked in both the US and Europe as well as in Asia – all these regions can come up with points about freedom in business, politics of business, and point fingers at others like this article did.

However, in the end a spurious connection to stir up emotional discussion is a cheap trick; especially when it taps into and tries to support a stereotype (Europe = oppressive socialism, US = free and liberating capitalism) that is a black-and-white distortion of real world. Usually you see this kind of “troll posts” only in online gaming forums.

This was nothing else than a “Fat people are all lazy. Discuss!” post.

You have no clue what a free market is in economics. Competition policy aims to create a free market. And its in the interest of tax payers to overcome dependencies.

Subsidies for quero are peanuts.

“Microsoft, Google = Totally harmless “Do NO Evil” type clean chits

vs

EU “Cheating and Non-competing ba****ds that want to get money off winners”

I dont think so.

First, I never said socialism couldn’t be discussed. I noted that no-one had yet to use the term in a derogatory, dismissive and condescending way (which you’ve now taken care of, thanks).

Secondly, since when in America did the word freedom come to mean “corporate freedom” (freedom to break the law, no less) ?? Forgive me, but I always though when Americans spoke about freedom they were referring to personal liberties (actually this whole “bringing freedom to Iraq” makes much more sense using your doublespeak).

But, since you insist to define the issue around “freedom” then I guess you are correct: MS does not have the “freedom” to break EU law (then again, they don’t have the freedom to break US law either).

“Socialists in Europe desire to take profits from Microsoft and give them to weaker competitors.”

This is a blatant lie and not at all what happened (Michael clearly states so himself). There is simply no connection with the MS fine and the search startup funding by two EU member states.

As for your socialism diatribe, let me simply ask this: If countries don’t use taxes (”take profits” as you say) to fund their activities where are they supposed to get the money from? No wait, let me guess….. They should borrow it from freedom-hating Chinese Communists! Is that the capitalistic, free-market, American thing to do?

Look, I’m neither pro-socialism or anti-capitalist or pro-anything. The world is much too complex to think in black and white. The point I’m trying to make is the rest of the world would just like you guys to have some modestly and don’t act like your way is the solution for everything and everybody.

Put simply, if you had all the answers, you wouldn’t need to borrow BILLIONS from a Communist, totalitarian, dictatorship like China, now would you?

LOL… Markus, this is a debate about economic policy in Europe. You demand European economic policy be debated without anyone mentioning socialism? LOL, how irreverent! Seriously though, Markus: banning essential concepts and people from a discussion is the queerest and oldest polemic trick in the book. Give it up!

Freedom is what we’re talking about here: should Microsoft have the freedom to conduct its business without the intervention of European socialists?

Yes or no, Makus?

Socialists in Europe desire to take profits from Microsoft and give them to weaker competitors. Stealing from the rich to give to the poor is SOCIALISM. Socialism punishes prosperity. If governments make it their policy to “take profits” from companies, then what incentive is there for a company to make a profit in the first place? This is the paradox of communism.

Communism! Uh oh! Markus, better head for the hills now…