European Commision On Entrepeneurship
MonsieurEvil
Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 4Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 4Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
in Discussions
<div class="IPBDescription">Dang, I swore I'd never come back :)</div> <a href='http://news.com.com/Entrepreneurship+not+in+Europes+blood/2100-1022_3-5540511.html?tag=nefd.top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/Entrepreneurship+not+i...ml?tag=nefd.top</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Entrepreneurship not in Europe's blood?
Published: January 18, 2005, 12:55 PM PST
By Ed Frauenheim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The next Amazon.com, Yahoo or Google appears less likely to come from Europe than the United States, according to a new study on entrepreneurship from the European Commission.
Forty-five percent of Europeans would like to be their own boss, compared with 61 percent of Americans, according to the report, published Monday. Factors linked to Europeans' relative aversion to starting up a business include a stronger emphasis on job stability and more anxiety about the possibility of bankruptcy, according to the report.
But European leaders are trying to encourage more citizens to become like Jeff Bezos, Jerry Yang or Sergey Brin. "Entrepreneurs are the economic DNA which we need to build competitiveness and innovation in Europe," European Commissioner Gunter Verheugen said in a statement.
The survey, which was conducted last April and involved telephone interviews of more than 21,000 people, found that just 2 percent of Europeans were actually in the process of setting up a business, compared with 8 percent of Americans.
One sign of hope for Europeans stems from stronger entrepreneurial spirit in the newer members of the European Union. Overall, a third of EU citizens not self-employed would consider setting up a business in the next five years, but that figure was 40 percent in the new-member states. The 10 newest members of the EU include the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
Forty-five percent of Europeans were worried about the possibility of bankruptcy, according to the report, contrasting with 36 percent of Americans. In addition, 35 percent of Europeans were worried about losing property if their businesses were to fail, compared with just 21 percent of Americans. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
An interesting study, and one that should definitely be factored into to the ostensible economic juggernaut that is the EU. The entrepeneur is one of the classic capitalist paradigms, and is certainly necessary for a country (or union) to grow economically.
So I guess my question is two-part: do you see this as a factor in the EU's economic expansion, and why on earth are the surveys so disparate between the US and EU?
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Entrepreneurship not in Europe's blood?
Published: January 18, 2005, 12:55 PM PST
By Ed Frauenheim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The next Amazon.com, Yahoo or Google appears less likely to come from Europe than the United States, according to a new study on entrepreneurship from the European Commission.
Forty-five percent of Europeans would like to be their own boss, compared with 61 percent of Americans, according to the report, published Monday. Factors linked to Europeans' relative aversion to starting up a business include a stronger emphasis on job stability and more anxiety about the possibility of bankruptcy, according to the report.
But European leaders are trying to encourage more citizens to become like Jeff Bezos, Jerry Yang or Sergey Brin. "Entrepreneurs are the economic DNA which we need to build competitiveness and innovation in Europe," European Commissioner Gunter Verheugen said in a statement.
The survey, which was conducted last April and involved telephone interviews of more than 21,000 people, found that just 2 percent of Europeans were actually in the process of setting up a business, compared with 8 percent of Americans.
One sign of hope for Europeans stems from stronger entrepreneurial spirit in the newer members of the European Union. Overall, a third of EU citizens not self-employed would consider setting up a business in the next five years, but that figure was 40 percent in the new-member states. The 10 newest members of the EU include the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
Forty-five percent of Europeans were worried about the possibility of bankruptcy, according to the report, contrasting with 36 percent of Americans. In addition, 35 percent of Europeans were worried about losing property if their businesses were to fail, compared with just 21 percent of Americans. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
An interesting study, and one that should definitely be factored into to the ostensible economic juggernaut that is the EU. The entrepeneur is one of the classic capitalist paradigms, and is certainly necessary for a country (or union) to grow economically.
So I guess my question is two-part: do you see this as a factor in the EU's economic expansion, and why on earth are the surveys so disparate between the US and EU?
Comments
Welcome back MonsE, we saved your needle but we're sure this is going to be your last hit, for real this time.
I thumbed my way through a few portions and found it quite interesting and very narrow sighted. Here's the cover's description:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In May 2004, the European Union will add ten new member states-including Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, among others-to become a union of twenty-five nations. While this might seem a fairly innocuous and minute shift of political semantics for most Americans, the enlargement will increase the population of the EU to 450 million citizens, making it larger (in population) and richer (in GDP) than the United States-not to mention that the EU has more trade than the United States and more votes on the UN Security Council and all other international organizations. This New Europe is determined to flex its political and economic muscle on the world stage. The Continent has moved much further than most Americans realize toward the dream of a "United States of Europe," to borrow Winston Churchill's term.
T. R. Reid's The United States of Europe lays bare the ways in which the EU is positioning itself to be a global counterweight and second superpower, on equal footing with the U.S.A. Reid traces the rise of the EU from the days when Churchill and other visionaries set out in the post-World War II rubble to find a means to end war in Europe. He shows how this remarkably successful effort to "create peace" also created a global economic and political power that is often at odds with the United States. This drive toward unity has been accelerated by the powerful mood of anti-Americanism (or, at least, anti-Bushism) that has swept the Continent since the war in Iraq.
In addition to the political ramifications of the EU, The United States of Europe shows the great impact this alliance is having on the global economic market. The euro, which now has more daily users than the dollar, is fast becoming a reserve currency and a new standard for global finance, a globally recognized replacement for the once-almighty dollar. Unification has spawned a generation of European corporate managers who have led firms like Nokia, Airbus, BP, Vodafone, and Red Bull to catch and surpass their U.S. competitors in global markets.
The European Union, from its beginnings as an experiment in statecraft, has rapidly emerged as a resounding success; yet Americans have so far managed to ignore the geopolitical revolution under way across the Atlantic. Reid's book shows how quietly-and not so quietly-Europe is developing itself into an economic, political, and cultural powerhouse.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
"What does this have to do with European Self-startups?" you might ask. Well, in the US, entrepeneurs drive the economic system either from the front or the back. Self owned businesses are the core of the American Dream.
How then will a continent full of workers barely willing to sell their own lemonade on the street attempt to surpass the juggernaut US economic system?
In my opinion, the EU, in its current form, is far too top heavy to remain a consistant player against the US. Without the innovative underdog blazing the trails with their entrepeneurial spirit, they will over beauracratize and corrupt themselves into financial gridlock.
As to the second part, and this quote from Skulkbait:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Well, its possible that the US has less overall job stability so its citizens are more willing to take such a risk.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I find this theory to be the exact opposite in reality. Job stability is greater in the US based on Europe's unemployment rate typically hitting twice the level of the States'. More appropriately, because jobs are more stable in the US, people are willing to step out on their own with the understanding that if they fail, they'll find other work for an employer.
btw, wb MonsE <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I found this to be rather interesting, certainly not an earth shattering event, but something to give hope to proponents of the EU.
Now to speak on the topic in very general terms, seeing as that’s all I'm capable of. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
America has always been seen as the land of plenty and unlimited opportunity.
People came here from other countries en masse to start new lives and of course start new businesses. I really think our history as the land of opportunity is what gives us the heads up as far as entrepreneurship concerned.
Certainly the fact that were a country of such diversity helps to avoid a "group think" mentality and allows to always have a plentiful supply of people with good, new ideas and the ability to put them to work.
<a href='http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/16/nbook16.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/01/16/ixhome.html' target='_blank'>Christopher Booker on the Telegraph website</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Thailand asks for trade not aid</b>
No industry was harder hit by the tsunami, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation revealed last week, than fishing. Thousands of boats and fishing communities were destroyed, the cost in Thailand alone being estimated at $16 million. Yet it is now a week since, almost wholly unreported in Europe, the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, told the world that his country did not want financial aid. Above all Thailand wanted the European Union to lift the punitive tariffs on shrimp exports which in recent years have inflicted more damage on its economy than the tsunami itself.
Since 1997, Mr Shinawatra told Jack Straw on his recent visit, the EU's suspension of its preferential tariff system for Asian fish imports has caused exports to the EU to collapse. This has cost the Thai economy £3 billion, double the £1.5 billion in aid that has been promised to the entire region. The purpose of the new tariffs was to give preferential status to the former French colonies of Senegal, Madagascar and French Guinea, the waters of which are fished by subsidised EU fleets, mainly from France, Spain and Portugal, in ways which bring little benefit to the local economies.
Stung by accusations that the EU's protectionism is doing immense damage to the Third World, our new Brussels trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, last week announced: "I want to find ways to assist people and businesses hit by the tsunami." He would "consider" moves towards trade concessions worth "tens of millions of euros". This compares with the Thais' own estimate that the shrimp tariff alone is now costing them £400 million a year.
The EU is thus happy to promise money, which Mr Shinawatra says his country does not want. But when he says he would prefer the right to earn that money through exports, all he gets is another press release from Mr Mandelson. As the British people could tell him, this is par for the course.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
After all, why bother with the little fix it shop guy when you can squeeze an entire country, crippled by natural disasters, of its barely manageable export economy. Go EU!
EDIT: Even better!
<a href='http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=66782005' target='_blank'>The Scotsman online</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Tsunami-hit Thais told: Buy six planes or face EU tariffs</b>
TSUNAMI-struck Thailand has been told by the European Commission that it must buy six A380 Airbus aircraft if it wants to escape the tariffs against its fishing industry.
While millions of Europeans are sending aid to Thailand to help its recovery, trade authorities in Brussels are demanding that Thai Airlines, its national carrier, pays £1.3 billion to buy its double-decker aircraft.
The demand will come as a deep embarrassment to Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, whose officials started the negotiation before the disaster struck Thailand - killing tens of thousands of people and damaging its economy.
While aid workers from across Europe are helping to rebuild Thai livelihoods, trade officials in Brussels are concluding a jets-for-prawns deal, which they had hoped to announce next month.
As the world’s largest producer of prawns, Thailand has become so efficient that its wares are half the price of those caught by Norway, the main producer of prawns for the EU.
To ensure the Thais cannot compete, EU officials five years ago removed its shrimp industry from the EU’s generalised system of preferential tariffs - designed to share Western wealth with developing countries by trade.
The EU has instead slapped a tariff of 12 per cent on its fish - three times that imposed on prawns from Malaysia, its neighbour. This is still less than the US tariff on Thai prawns: 97 per cent.
The prawn tax is one in a series of protectionist measures expected to cost east Asia some £130 million each year - money being taken from its economies while EU citizens donate millions in charity.
Five days after the tsunami struck, the EU legislated against Thailand by slapping a new tariff designed to extinguish its booming trade in cumarin, a plant extract used in perfume.
On 31 December, the EU imposed duties of €3,480 (£2,430) a tonne for Thai exports of cumarin - a move entirely designed to protect Rhodia, a French chemicals firm and the EU’s only producer of cumarin.
Oxfam has attacked the tariffs, saying: "When countries are lying prostrate before us, it is criminal to continue to tax them on what they sell."
Sri Lanka has already pleaded to be exempt from EU and US textiles tariffs as it tries to recover.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sounds like a bargain to me.
If it came out wide-scale publically, I think it would be as sore as if any country have done it.
Are you American?
If you are, where the heck do you live that gives you the impression that the majority of the population support the war? (I mean really support, think it was justified, the whole deal, not just the preponderance of "meh" personalities that seem to crop up everywhere)
And if you're not: psst, the majority of Americans don't support the war.
If it came out wide-scale publically, I think it would be as sore as if any country have done it. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
First off, unfortunately as stated above, the majority of Americans or at least a good half does not support the war in Iraq.
Secondly, I know many Europeans pride themselves as being superior in their political knowledge, they also <i>love</i> to criticize American media. My question is why don't more Europeans know about this? Where is the outrage? Could it be their too busy directing all their outrage towards the US to indirectly...or directly divert attention away from their own mishaps?
This reeks of Oil for Food and the like.
As an idle observation, I find it interesting to note how, while I'm usually reminded on every turn that the EU can impossibly be compared to the US due to its heterogenous nature, nobody in here has so far remarked on whether this Europe-wide study is truly representative of all Europeans, seeing the disparities already remarked upon in the article itself...
This is not to say that I disagree with the assessment of the article, on the contrary. I see multiple reasons for this situation, one of them being that the United States are culturally very welcoming towards entrepeneurship. The US are more or less culturally <i>defined</i> by the American Dream, to which the idea of economical initiative is a cornerstone, as Spooge clearly demonstrates with his assessment regarding the importance of startups in the distribution of economic power. There's another way of putting it: Europeans are culturally more inclined to regard the prospect of economical independence with sobriety, and the matter of fact is that the current period, which sees the death of numerous middle-scale enterprises on both sides of the Atlantic, is not the most favorable for upstarts.
Another, clearly connected reason is the problem of the acquisition of funding, which is currently very difficult due to very conservative credit-giving habits by most European banks: They tend to demand up to threefold security for their investments, which in turn makes entrepeneurship impossible for people with little financial reserves. This situation was different until a few years ago, which evidenced itself in significantly more company upstarts (think "SAP").
Furthermore, I'm inclined to agree with SkulkBait's first impulse. While it is true that net unemployment in the United States is lower than in the most European countries, the living conditions of employed Europeans are as a rule better (consider that one third of the US population lives below the poverty line, job or not). In other words, these people have something to lose, which has never been something encouraging you to be adventurous.
So much for the second part of MonsE's question, now for the first: I don't consider this too big an impendment for European economic expansion. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to live in a climate more friendly towards entrepeneurship, since this would likely be a climate of more middle-class enterprises, which is a very desireable thing to my mind, but the harsh reality is that most upstarts don't make the slightest dent in a nation's economic importance either way; we live in an age of economic centralization, and in this regard, Europe stands almost eye to eye with the United States.