How to make a country prosper

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Many nations in Europe are struggling with the economic growth and are wondering how to get the economy growing again. A tough challenge? I don´t think so.
I have lived, worked and done business in different countries and I think it actually is just doing the obvious right things that will get you there:
- It is getting all the small things to work and be as effective as possible. This means the public sector, eg. tax department, but also the private. For example in Estonia a bank account costs something like 2 eur/month for a company whereas in Finland it costs 50 eur/month. It seems a small issue, but it is one among many. In Estonia it takes 5min to register a company, in Finland you have to print and send an application on paper.
- It is looking at the big picture and not only optimizing the current budget. The government should not just look at the current budget (like in Estonia), but take care also of the term development, like education or solving the declining demographics, HIV, drug or alcohol problems.
- Eliminate the known real bad phenomena like corruption, arguing with your neighbours, oligarchy, giant firms and economic sectors living off the general population - banks charging ridiculous transaction fees, monopoly-utilities, pension funds charging too high management fees etc.
- Eliminate the obvious waste. People living in suburbs and driving 1+ hours to work and back instead of living close to their work and biking or teleworking.....or companies producing something that is only profitable due to government subsidies (agriculture in EU) or usage of free resources (producing oil from oilshale in Estonia)

So making an economy and a country prosper is not rocket science and it does not demand top of the noch innovation. Just do the right and obvious things properly and prosperity comes to you....because startups will start and intelligent people will come and start working.

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