"I can say that no third world country makes it as hard to be self-employed as we do in the US" I don't know what kind of self-employment you're talking about,

"I can say that no third world country makes it as hard to be self-employed as we do in the US" I don't know what kind of self-employment you're talking about, but in some of the Third World countries it's pretty hard. Here in Uruguay, unless you fall in the special category called "monotributo" (only for very low income), you have to jump through a lot of hoops (or pay a lot for a pre-made company), and pay lots of taxes, most of them are of the kind "pay now, we'll reimburse you later" and are reimbursed in tax credits mostly (not actual money). Of course, you can also work illegally, and that's what most people did, that's why the "monotributo" tax was created, to make people pay at least a little tax and social security. The same happens in Argentina, and Perú had such a huge illegal infrastructure that liberal economist Hernando de Soto made it his field of studies (at the beginning, it took 400 steps to be a legal company in Peru). Professionals (such as engineers and programmers) fall under a different scheme, but it also entails several regulations and you usually always fail something in the eyes of the IRS equivalent (DGI) and have to pay fines.