I'm just going to go out and say it: Europe is poor. At least compared to the US. You can see this plainly when comparing GDP per capita but it's particularly telling when you look at the revenue of tech giants, such as Alphabet and Meta. For example, Alphabet made roughly 50% of its revenue from the US and about 30% from EMEA in 2025.
Now compound that issue with conservative investors, a fractured "single" market and a strong preference for social equality over entrepreneurship.
> Physical losses in undermaintained water grids are the biggest cause for the issue.
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't that mean the water is returned back to the environment? It's not made unusable, nor does it disappear permanently.
This "greed" and lack of foresight underpins a lot of the welfare states of Europe. Many member states are doing nothing at all to account for this population shrinkage, much less plan for a world with less people.
Which in itself wouldn't even be a problem if lack of said documents caused your submission to automatically fail validation right at the start. Instead, a real, live person will need to review your request to verify that it indeed includes a full set of documents, said documents are genuine and "correct" (despite most of them already being issued by the government!) before approving your request.
Not quite. Disguised employment is a pretty specific and (usually) clear-cut issue with well defined criteria. The problems start when a jurisdiction broadens the definition to include whatever they want because they want to capture more tax revenue.
IANAL, but I've been freelancing for years and had a similar thing come up. In the end I was found compliant with the law, ie: not in disguised employment.
Last year, when I bought a boat. Financially, it was probably one of the stupider decisions I've made. On the other hand, it opened a whole new world to me, forced me to grow as a person and made me reevaluate my priorities in life.
> Its an insult to people from non-english speaking countries.
No it is not. It may be an insult to people from larger countries who have been pampered all their life, with all the content they consumed being in their native language, being led to believe that their language is somehow equal to English. It is not.
I am Croatian. I don't expect anyone to learn my language, even if they're coming to live here. In fact, considering how difficult it is, we Croatians usually tell people not to bother. I do expect that when I travel, I can use English, the de-facto lingua franca, to find my way around and communicate with locals. I expect signs and information to be in English. Most amusingly enough, people from smaller countries _get_ this. They understand that if they want to participate in a global society, they need to learn English. People from big countries don't.
> People who can invest large amounts of money can afford a translator.
Yeah, that sound like the European way of thinking about business. "What do you mean you don't want to spend money on red tape and pointless busy-work? Maybe you're too poor to start a business?" On the other hand, the Anglo-sphere makes it as easy as possible to start a business. And thus, the US is a hotbed of innovation while Europe...is not.
> You can't expect the rest of the world to work exactly like it does at home.
Funny you should mention that. I come from a small country. And when you come from a small country, learning a foreign language is basically required. Nobody is going to bother learning your language in order to communicate with you. Why this idea is so foreign in _bigger_ countries was always fascinating to me (even though I know why).
> From the country's perspective: what good does this foreign startup bring?
Free money without the country having to do much? I mean, if I was a government, I'd be pretty happy with somebody paying me money for doing nothing other than keeping a piece of paper with a company name in a filing cabinet. I'd be even happier if somebody I didn't have to raise or educate moved here to pay taxes and spend their money.
> a foreigner should not expect a country to conduct its legal proceedings in a language different to their native.
If that is the case, perhaps countries should consider their native language as an actual disadvantage when it comes to attracting foreign investment? After all, if I need to learn, say, Slovenian, to open and run a business in Slovenia, that makes me less likely to do so. Which means that Slovenia might need to settle for lower tax rates or provide some other benefits in order to entice me to do business there.
> EU: 27 different markets in the EU + half a dozen markets in countries freely associated with the EU (e.g. Norway and Switzerland) in different languages, cultures and expectations
That's understating the issue. There are only 5 (!) EU member states with a population higher than that of the NYC metropolitan area and _none_ with that kind of population concentration or purchasing power.
Front-end developer with over 5 years of freelance experience, mostly on greenfield projects but also occasionally with established codebases. Used to working alone with minimal supervision or in small teams. Have a good eye for design, a strong focus on code quality, good communication skills and some experience in technical management.
No, it's fine. I assumed that you meant that olx.ro was a scam or something. Only after I visited immobiliare.ro did I realize the difference in quality between their offerings.
Not all that unusual really. Before the EURO replaced the DM, many things in Croatia, such as cars and real estate were denominated in DM. This was due to rampant inflation (especially in the 80s and 90s) causing people to lose faith in the local currency.
I expect I'll get a lot of flak for this one, but I'd like to suggest the "4 hour work week" by Tim Ferriss. I've read it at about the same age and it had a profound effect on me.
Another book I'd suggest is the Enchiridion of Epictetus.
If you ever intend to have kids, "Summerhill" by A.S.Neill is a good choice.
Indeed they are. It's a pity that more governments haven't followed their example or that having clear, easy to use government websites is somehow still a too high bar to clear for so many countries.
I'm not sure the average Brit appreciates how good these online services are, on account of never having to use the "average" government website.
Now compound that issue with conservative investors, a fractured "single" market and a strong preference for social equality over entrepreneurship.