It's not the Welfare State but bureaucracy and tax greed.

Today I've read a blog post by Jesús Encinar, CEO of idealista.com, the go-to site for renting and buying real state in Spain. The article is in Spanish, short summary below):

http://www.jesusencinar.com/2011/06/10-ideas-concretas-para-...

"Ten ideas to promote startups in Spain"

- Limited liability

- The State shouldn't keep VAT returns for a year.

- Not overtaxing employee's stock (taxed 47% for employees)

- Not overtaxing business angels

- Easy foreign workers recruit

- Limit the need for licenses for everything.

- Lower freelancers taxes

- Lower startup social security burden

- Remove 1% tax on capital ampliations

- Stop attacking Internet sector

These are only the titles. Reading the details is depressing. Some of what you take for granted in the USA is impossible or infeasible here.

The basic idea is that, in order to startup, you must pay tons of taxes and licenses from the start, even if you're not earning a cent.

I agree with your tax greed argument. In Poland, the state will take any and every opportunity to increase tax revenues, while doing nothing to cut expenses. I'm not sure how it works elsewhere in the EU, but here you have to pay VAT on unpaid invoices as well, effectively making you liable for your customers' inability to pay. This, coupled with the fact that courts are inefficient and generally extremely slow in rulings (in the case of delayed payments), is a sure recipe for disaster.

Yes the unpaid bills is the same, it's in the article. The problem with the courts is not, but it indeed happens.

I don't really see the comparison here. Germany is a successful country and Germans enjoy a high standard of living. Is there a trade off between welfare and entrepreneurship? I don't know, but I don't see the issue, as Germans are doing pretty good for themselves.

I'm not sure that I see why there should be a correlation between the two ideas - it is perfectly possible to believe that you can provide decent social services (education, healthcare etc.) without discouraging private enterprise.

[NB I'm in the UK and I fully support the current governments attempts to thin down the public sector here - with up to 25% cuts in some areas (not the NHS though)].

I don't think the Welfare State is a problem at all nor do I think we have a problem in this culture with being successful. It is just that most people consider the risk associated with creating a startup and the probability of actually succeeding to low.

Being an employee is a lot simpler, quite safe and depending on your education is a lot more likely to get you a nice lifestyle.

Support for a social safety net and anti-market ideology don't necessarily have to go together, but in practice they do.