>Things start getting highly regulated when the government sets what prices you can charge, who you are allowed to do business with, etc. Oh! It's so convenien

>Things start getting highly regulated when the government sets what prices you can charge, who you are allowed to do business with, etc. Oh! It's so convenient that the definition of 'highly regulated' for you fits perfectly into your world view. Those hundreds of thousands of pages of laws that govern trade and the tens of thousands of enforcement officials must just be my imaginiation >For example, I'm in the software business. There aren't any regulations on it. Your definition of regulation is different than the actual definition of regulation. You already got your understanding of the German economy corrected by others. I think you almost certainly are a great example of someone who is a SME in one area which makes you think you are a SME in other areas, when you actually aren't. Social Security and Medicare aren't wealth transfer programs. The United States has tons of regulations and central economic planning. Your ignorance of those facts is a deficit on your part that you can easily rectify.