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Comment by brnt | Hacker News Reader

The first question about Chesterton fences is: why is it there?

Correct. On the other hand, Europe (and especially my home Germany) tend to be really bad at navigating people through the laws and regulations they create. Laypeople are left to figure out what the laws are, what they mean, how to follow them, where to get the required certifications etc.

My first year of running a simple business in Germany was unbelievably confusing. My only saving grace was that none of those laws are enforced. GDPR is a good example.

> Europe (and especially my home Germany)

Europe/EU is not Germany… and Germany is infamous for it's dumb redtape and being stuck in "their ways" (if it works then it works then there is no need to change that" seems to be a proverb there, inni't?)

Besides - in majority of the countries you have to navigate the laws… either yourself or you get an expert/lawyer that does that for you o_O

I did business in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia and Sweden. It was a total shitshow, and I moved it all to UK, which is much better (especially the gov.uk site is a godsend).

What exactly was a shitshow in Sweden? So far in my experience it's quite a breeze to start and run a business here.

As everywhere else in EU (and unlike the UK), filling taxes and registering employees for all the necessary insurances and gov agencies becomes an extreme burden as soon as you go beyond just one person / the simplest business transactions. It's a fulltime job even if the company is still very small and just doesn't have the resources to hire a fulltime dedicated person.

Uhm... usually if you go beyond 1 person then you get someone to handle all the paperwork and this applies to almost all countries... In case of Poland it's not all that expensive either, especially if it takes off of you the burden...

No, not really. I can't make the money to hire the person to handle it without first having the employees. I handle it all myself, I am not VC-funded nor eligible for incentives.

Still, cost of accountant in Poland is just... low...

My point is that the UX of running a business in Europe is not great. Germany is worse, but the EU is not great either.

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