Take your reasons, which are really more opinions, and insert "free speech" instead of "unions" (after the appropriate changes) and you might understand why people would disagree.
I agree that it is an exaggeration to call it the greatest pieces of engineering of our time. Still there are many technologies that are well liked but haven't developed in many years. There are many technologies that are here today but severely limited. And there are many technologies which promises potential for something better in the future. There are very few pieces of software that are here today and ticks a lot of the boxes of computer science. That are open source, cross-platform, extensible and has a modern stack.
> browser engines (unfortunately)
I often wish it wasn't so but the reality is that a shit ton of development has gone into browsers and in many cases other areas just aren't comparable. Even more so considering most resources go into proprietary technologies.
As as side note reverse engineering hardware can certainly be very hard. It is also something that can gather far more credit than it probably should compared to actually engineering a solution in the first place.
Because South Korea is successful at what it does. If South Korea looked like Thailand it would be a different story. And that is part of why it doesn't.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is actually a good example. Just the other way around. What is happening to Russia is exactly what happens when you neglect your industry and population to the point that you no longer have enough of an advantage in equipment or people willing to fight. Something South Korea can't afford.
South Korea have a fairly direct threat of invasion that at least somewhat limits how dysfunctional the elites can be without the risk of facing consequences themselves. Taiwan, Finland, Israel and so on.
> People are very skeptical of those that go solo and try to setup their own business in Europe, especially if it doesn't involve some 'well known' field like a trade or retail establishment.
In my experience that is a very European viewpoint. Some Europeans think that Americans are more free because society doesn't care what they do. In reality, as you probably can tell by US politics, that often isn't really the case. To the extent that Americans are more free it is more because they themselves don't care about what others think. Europeans that think American society is more supportive are mostly just saying that they themselves need more support.
This might seem like a weird distinction but it takes it from being a "hard problem" that is forced on you, to a "soft problem" that you can potentially change yourself.
I don't mind the discussion, it is just more or less impossible to have when the premise is faulty. I can tell you exactly why Europeans think the US is better at innovation. It is because when Americans aren't satisfied with something they blame the US but still thinks the US is best country in the world. However when European aren't satisfied with something the blame Europe (or their country) and conclude that the US must be better. This has everything to do with US cultural influence.
The far majority of twitch streamers do not have some illustrious career waiting for them. People in big cities with competitive degrees are underrepresented on twitch relative to other areas.
> Most of the big earners started streaming within the last 5 years
I'm not sure what numbers you are referring to. There was a huge increasing in streaming and watching during the pandemic. Many of the big streamers are in their late 20s or even early 30s. Which is relatively old considering you can start streaming in your teens.
There is no way to recover stolen possessions with a high degree of confidence as there are countless of those types of incidents all the time every day. Most police forces already have less resources than they could use for the more serious cases. Reliably handling lesser serious cases that are even more plentiful would be a large increase in activities and even larger increase in effort. And since a large part of the cost of public services are salaries it would mean a noticeable tax increase. Probably for a long time. Other than that what you are asking isn't really possible.
The cost of handling an order of magnitude more cases is significantly expanding the service. Everyone wants excellent public police, health care or education when it affects themselves. But going from average to good to excellent public services take more and more effort. Few countries today are willing to have the long-term public commitment and taxes to make that a reality.
From what I have seen it hasn't been getting much worse. Other than just bounce rate I think far more people are becoming aware that reality is different from The Economist "a thousand words by Friday" writing. Hong Kong being one example.
