Comment by qcnguy
> My guy, the EU is not founding companies, it is giving existing companies subsidies. The profits of those companies will not be public, they are private. I can vouch forst hand that research money is being funneled to startups and other private companies
Nobody claimed it isn't, but governments trying to pick winners by subsidizing startups is still the same old left wing politics. You don't see the USA spray grants around at the scale the EU does, do you? I'm pretty sure they don't directly subsidize startups at all.
BTW companies are routinely created in the EU specifically to access the 'free money' of grants. The act of offering subsidies creates companies. The profits - if any - will be taxed heavily. They are only partly private. We agree, though, that this is not as extreme as the 100% profit tax that occurs under nationalization.
> I also think it's hilarious that you think a) the EU is feminist, and b) that feminism is leftist.
The EU leadership class all demanded a female EU Commission president before Ursula vdL mysteriously failed upwards into the role without explanation:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/23/eu-leaders-cal...
> You don't see the USA spray grants around at the scale the EU does, do you? I'm pretty sure they don't directly subsidize startups at all.
Not true at all. The amount of support is comparable. It's just that you have to count everything, not only whatever is classified under pure "grants". R&D paid by the government (external financing). Tax credits (R&D, CHIPS, IRA, clean energy). Loan guarantees. SBIR/STTR (America's Seed Fund). Non-dilutive grants/contracts for R&D, often followed by government procurement contracts (Spacex, etc). DoD/Darpa, NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE, EDA. Earmarks. Congressional "community projects". Sector bailouts...