The startup scene consists of say 100 individuals or small groups who will try something. One will succeed and 99 will fail. This is normal. What is not normal, is that countries like France will persecute the 99 other ones, and even put them in prison, because they are unable to keep paying taxes and contributions now that their project has failed. Since none of the 100 starters knew if they would be the lucky one, they feel it is too risky to try. They are right, and the risk that they are trying to avoid, is created by the government.

There is a reason why governments prefer large companies, don't like small companies, and discourage starting one. If a large company employs 1000 persons, they only need to speak to 1 person to collect taxes on all 1000. It would be a problem, if they had to collect them from each individual person one by one, from all 1000. Large companies make life easier to them. So, they discourage people from being self-employed or create small companies. One way to do that, is to punish them harshly if they fail.

The biggest problem that the government has, is that their policy is actually working. Nobody wants to start a new company. With old companies gradually becoming outdated and disappearing, that is not such a good thing. So, now they want to encourage people to do something that they also discourage them from doing.