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Apple vs the Law

(formularsumo.co.uk)
377 points tempodox | 2 comments | 11 Jul 25 06:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.45s | source
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simonask ◴[11 Jul 25 08:22 UTC] No.44529604[source]▶
As a European, I have to say I am generally impressed with the EU in these cases. I'm from a country that's rich and capable, but with a GDP a fraction of Apple's market cap. There is no chance that national laws and entities would be sufficient to protect my consumer rights from corporations this size.

The EU is fundamentally a centre-right, liberalist, pro-business coalition, but what that means is that it is pro-competition. What's really impressive is that it seems to mostly refrain from devolving into protectionist policies, giving no preferential treatment to European businesses against international (intercontinental?) competitors, despite strong populist tendencies in certain member states.

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giingyui ◴[11 Jul 25 10:58 UTC] No.44530729[source]▶
Europe is centre right? That is an interesting claim. I guess someone’s right is someone else’s left.
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xandrius ◴[11 Jul 25 11:09 UTC] No.44530794[source]▶
Where would you place it? I'm curious because centre-right is quite spot on.
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giingyui ◴[11 Jul 25 11:50 UTC] No.44531072[source]▶
Socially and economically left wing. Progressive socially and interventionist economically.
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cess11 ◴[11 Jul 25 12:44 UTC] No.44531482[source]▶
Is this a joke? The EU is the product of large industrialists institutionalising their liberalist, capitalist values as an international bureaucracy.

It hardly cares about unions beyond what the ECHR and ILO treaties demands, i.e. it's obviously not left wing. If it was inherently left wing it wouldn't have the kind of parliament it has, but rather something like Yugoslavia or the DDR did.

It's also not conservative, hence why that movement has had to bolt on militarisation and stuff like Frontex.

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giingyui ◴[11 Jul 25 12:52 UTC] No.44531562[source]▶
It’s not the eighties anymore. The world has moved on. You have to look at things from the perspective of the present. Forget Yugoslavia.
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saubeidl ◴[11 Jul 25 12:53 UTC] No.44531571[source]▶
Yugoslavia was the perfect economic model. Forgetting it would be doing the world a disservice.
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cess11 ◴[11 Jul 25 13:43 UTC] No.44532071[source]▶
Today is Srebrenica remembrance day so I'll sneak in a OT link to the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsBTkAXnPZs

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saubeidl ◴[11 Jul 25 13:49 UTC] No.44532128[source]▶
It is quite unfortunate what happened when ethnic nationalism won out over brotherhood and unity, but to be clear, I don't think that has anything to do with the economic model
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1. cess11 ◴[12 Jul 25 08:48 UTC] No.44540425[source]▶
Marxists usually apply a discourse regarding political economy because they perceive economy and ideology to be inseparable, and I'd expect Tito to also have done so. Yugoslavia as an entity was tightly coupled with the person of Tito and lacked mechanisms for keeping local governments in cooperation in his absence.

I'm sympathetic to the yugoslavian project and consider it an important source of inspiration and knowledge, but I don't believe fortune had anything to do with what happened afterwards.

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2. saubeidl ◴[12 Jul 25 08:57 UTC] No.44540469[source]▶
I also don't believe fortune did. I believe western capital, threatened by the success of the Yugoslav project, bankrolled nationalist extremists in a successful ploy to destabilize systemic competition.