Generalized statements are dumb.
Looks like they still haven't figured out this)
[1]https://cdn.howmuch.net/articles/world-map-manufacturing-out...
Huh what? Biontech is a German company. The German Mittelstand literally runs half of the "hidden champions" worldwide - companies that everyone else depends on, that have utter dominance in their niche market. German cars are of a hardware build quality that makes anyone else - particularly Tesla - be dead in the water (although the software side of German cars is just the other way around, I'll admit that). Germany literally created the market for cheap solar panels by massively subsidizing them during the Schröder years. MP3? A standard developed by Fraunhofer in Germany. CERN and ITER? European based. Europe as a whole has an actually working high-speed train network. The maglev train? A German invention. Brutal and effective collective worker action (aka strikes)? A French patent. Chip-and-PIN? Introduced in Europe. A ton of ISO standards? They are actually extensions or adoption of German DIN, including the paper size that almost everyone but the US uses. Metric/SI system? An European invention. MySQL? A Swedish invention. Linux? Invented by a Finn. Half of mobile communications dates back to stuff from Nokia and Ericsson.
The only area where Europe lags behind is providing insane amounts of insanely dumb capital to startups.
Of course there are winners in all regions of the world. Most of your examples are pretty biased though. Japanese cars > German cars. China is probably more relevant to the massive cost reductions in solar panels. Europe has a high-speed train network because of its age and size. Not practical in many parts of the world but I would say China's network is much better than Europes. Maglev trains were not a German invention.
You are missing the bigger picture of my half serious side. I am not talking about specific inventions but that 1) making a generalize statement is pointless and just introduces useless strife and 2) the EU is starting to get eaten away by Chinese manufacturing and innovation. There is a balance between regulation and free markets and if I was wanting to HQ a company I am not sure I would pick the EU.
