anaidenov

The EU consists of member states pursuing two contradictory goals: improving long-term economic efficiency by building a pan-European single market, and protecting local inefficiencies to preserve short-term political stability. Once the first goal ceases to be about improvement and becomes a matter of survival, the second will lose its importance (and the cycle -- "low taxes and barriers - growth - seems safe to tax, regulate and spend more - stagnation" -- will begin again).

Claude: drops production zone with the database and backups

Meatbags: hold my beer...

A seasoned fraudster or tax evader have all the experience, time, and resources to navigate and exploit the system regardless of the measures in place.

On the other hand, an ordinary individual considering starting a new business, perhaps only a few times in their lifetime, may indeed be dissuaded from pursuing this venture.

This issue mirrors the inefficacy of anti-money laundering policies, which, while intended to curb criminal activities, have a negligible impact estimated at merely 0.1%; but the global cost of implementing these policies exceeds their benefits of two orders of magnitude (see DOI:10.1080/25741292.2020.1725366 for details).