Youth unemployment is actually somewhat low in the EU at the moment. It's at around 15%, which is the level as back in 2008 before the great recession.
From Micron, everything up to their 1-beta node is DUV. Their 1-gamma node they debuted last year is the only EUV node they have. If you bought a Micron-based DDR5 RAM stick a year ago it would have been DUV and you could get those up to DDR5-8000. 1-gamma increases that to DDR5-9200, so if you can live with ~15% less performance DUV is good enough.
A purchase transaction is a different thing from a subscription. It would be a more meaningful comparison if your example happened at Costco where you need a membership to shop. You'd get either your groceries or your $250 back, but you'd be banned from the store and you wouldn't get your membership fee refunded.
Dependence on Russia is quite sharply down. In Q1 2022 the EU imported 63 billion EUR worth of goods from Russia, in Q3 2025 only 5.7 billion. So down 90%.
In terms of fossil fuels:
- Russia isn't even in the top 6 oil supplies of the EU. The top 6 are USA, Norway, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iraq. They make up ~60% of EU oil imports.
- In raw natural gas: Norway, Algeria, UK and Azerbaijan supply 81% of EU imports.
- In liquefied natural gas: USA, Qatar and Algeria supply 68% of EU imports.
Add to that Dutch and Danish North Sea oil and gas and it's evident the EU is not "dependent" on Russia.
Needing to put in >1000 EUR in starting capital is not uncommon. The "cheapest Danish limited liability company, the Aps needs 20k DKK up front, i.e. ~3000 EUR. In Sweden an AB needs 25k SEK, ~2300 EUR.
And you can always dissolve the company and take the capital out again tax free, so what's the big deal?
The capital situation is especially dumb. There's been a lot of debate recently in Denmark about why our pension funds invest a lot of money in US venture capital funds that then invest in Danish startups that have moved to the Bay Area. The same money could have been invested in the same startups here in Europe.
1. In this case, not using the energy at all would have been better.
2. The legislature of a sovereign polity would have, and be able to delegate, that right. If and when the legislature should make use of that right is a political question.
reply