Entrepreneurs and the self-employed have a lot to do. You have to satisfy special requests from customers, meet deadlines for orders, develop new products and services and ensure a working atmosphere that binds sought-after specialists instead of running to the competition or switching to the often quieter civil service. Oh yes, and there is still digitization that has to be mastered and the transformation to a more sustainable economy. The whole thing has been taking place for a long time under the difficult conditions of the pandemic, nevertheless the majority of small and medium-sized companies closed the Corona year 2020 with a profit.
Admittedly, the state has done a lot to help companies through the crisis and to protect jobs - with taxpayers' money, of course. Nevertheless, many entrepreneurs feel in a headlock of political uncertainty, the threat of tax increases on assets and corporate inheritances, and an omnipresent bureaucracy that keeps them from doing their core business. No wonder that some remain loyal to Germany only out of love for their homeland, while others try to make room for themselves with relocations.
The federal elections would be an opportunity for politicians to finally loosen the regulatory grip. The problem: New rules are created faster than old ones can be abolished because the jungle of paragraphs that has grown over decades can no longer even be surveyed by experts. Even tax consultants, who owe their profession to a certain complexity of the laws, are now saying that it is enough. The FDP wants to pragmatically clear the thicket and abolish two old ones for each new regulation. It would be a step forward if the mountain of paper stopped growing.