So who wins? The entitlement people or their big business masters. Once one takes a step backwards the other steps in to fill the void.

Well hopefully it won't become as black and white as that and there does remain good people willing to work and good people willing to provide employment. But I agree technology is putting on the squeeze and we even talked about that when I was a kid about all the leisure time we would have.

elgordo38 is one of the brainwashed.

technology is not putting on the squeeze.

workers are being replaced with machines costing 500.000 EUR - so there is the squeeze right there: it's the cost of labor and associated taxes.

I'm critical of big business too.

But labor laws aren't only against big business, they are against all business.

I can tell you something:

I was about to pursue a small business opportunity in France with a pensioner.

projected annual gross was around 15.000 EUR.

from that, we could have payed up to 5000 EUR per month on taxes, fees and whatever.

but in the end, we couldn't do it because of a combination of regulation, registration, taxes, social fees and fiscal considerations, our business would not have made a profit anymore...

That's what paralyzes France.

I was about to pursue a small business opportunity in France with a pensioner.

projected annual gross was around 15.000 EUR.

from that, we could have payed up to 5000 EUR per month on taxes, fees and whatever.

but in the end, we couldn't do it because of a combination of regulation, registration, taxes, social fees and fiscal considerations, our business would not have made a profit anymore..

That's what paralyzes France.

There are many a great business idea that just don't quite pan out when taking into consideration the taxes paid for the public infrastructure provided, regulations in place to protect health and environment, and other costs related to covering the costs of externalities. Now I've not run a small business in France, but I have run a small business in the US where we also have the same host of costs that you mentioned that made your business plan a no-go. The other side of that coin is that your plan was marginal at best relative to the income that you were willing to work for and relative to what you perceived as the financial risk. Here in the US there are plenty of small businesses with both a monthly gross similar to your proposal with similar costs, but they are usually run by immigrants willing to work 12 hour days at least 6 days a week and they still save enough to send their kids to college. They never complain about taxes. The ones that complain are usually the absentee franchise owners who complain their fast food franchise is no longer profitable without some sweat equity thrown in.

I was about to pursue a small business opportunity in France with a pensioner.

projected annual gross was around 15.000 EUR.

from that, we could have payed up to 5000 EUR per month on taxes, fees and whatever.

but in the end, we couldn't do it because of a combination of regulation, registration, taxes, social fees and fiscal considerations, our business would not have made a profit anymore..

That's what paralyzes France.

There are many a great business idea that just don't quite pan out when taking into consideration the taxes paid for the public infrastructure provided, regulations in place to protect health and environment, and other costs related to covering the costs of externalities. Now I've not run a small business in France, but I have run a small business in the US where we also have the same host of costs that you mentioned that made your business plan a no-go. The other side of that coin is that your plan was marginal at best relative to the income that you were willing to work for and relative to what you perceived as the financial risk. Here in the US there are plenty of small businesses with both a monthly gross similar to your proposal with similar costs, but they are usually run by immigrants willing to work 12 hour days at least 6 days a week and they still save enough to send their kids to college. They never complain about taxes. The ones that complain are usually the absentee franchise owners who complain their fast food franchise is no longer profitable without some sweat equity thrown in.

Not sure what your point is... had this opportunity been in Switzerland or Germany, it would have been a go, because it would have been flying with just about 2 hours of work per week...