I actually had this debate once when I was a member of my local town council (in germany. A small business started by a woman in her garage had to shut down an

I actually had this debate once when I was a member of my local town council (in germany. A small business started by a woman in her garage had to shut down and I cited HP and other famous "garage" companies and asked if we would have shut down their business. The answer I got was "Yes of course" the vote afterwards was 12-1 for shutting it down. On the other hand there is a lively startup scene and especially the online business is quite forgiving so it's not the same everywhere in germany.