> More than anything, I think that it resoundingly demonstrates that as a person, you can make a difference, even if you are not rich, powerful, or well-connect

> More than anything, I think that it resoundingly demonstrates that as a person, you can make a difference, even if you are not rich, powerful, or well-connected politically. Yes, you just need to be naive enough. The resulting law only allows €1 charges for people under 35 and it does nothing about the other expenses that stifle small businesses: - the payment of anticipated VAT for the next fiscal year as estimated by the government based on this year's ledger - the market studies that establish the average income of a similar business in your field and then taxes you according to this hypothetical income if your documented one is bellow average - certain taxes that have a fixed minimum forcing you to reach a certain income immediately or dig yourself deeper into debt - an aversion towards bankruptcy - you are usually guilty of fraud until proven otherwise and the legal process is long and costly - insane fiscal policies like the one forcing retail shops to only have large price reductions 2 months per year, at the season's end, after communicating it to the local authorities and only being allowed to charge bellow the acquisition price in certain conditions, as to maximize the state's return (they reason that reducing the price also reduces the taxes) While small timers have to deal will all this, big businesses get public money in order to "save the jobs" or protect strategic industries, they get to use the government's resources to secure deals abroad and they get to negotiate with the revenue service when they are caught red handed. The signs are clear: become an employee or pay the price of your foolishness. You can't fix the system. At most you can provide some PR material for one politician or another and write a self-congratulatory blog post about it.