America's businesses are getting older and fatter, while many new businesses are dying in infancy.

A study last month by the Brookings Institution found that the proportion of older firms has grown steadily over several decades, while the survival rate of new companies has fallen. In addition, young people are starting companies at a sharply lower rate than in the past.

A new report from the National Association of Manufacturers shows a major cause: The cost of obeying government regulations has risen to more than $2 trillion（12.26 trillion yuan） annually, or 12 percent of the GDP, and this cost falls disproportionately on smaller, newer businesses.

It's risky, difficult and expensive to start a business, and getting more so. Governments are imposing various new rules on a seemingly daily basis: health insurance, minimum wage increases and, most recently in California, compulsory paid sick days for even hourly employees. These regulations shift huge social welfare costs directly onto often-struggling small businesses, while being proportionally much less costly for larger companies.

This is partly an unintended issue of resources — established companies can cope with new costs more easily — but it's also deliberate. For instance, big insurance companies got a seat at the table to help write Obama care, but less politically powerful firms — like medical device manufacturers — got squeezed.

Mature, successful corporations can employ ex-lawmakers with connections, distribute campaign contributions and even write regulations for themselves. They are also more likely to want to protect steady revenue streams than revolutionize their industry.

Major companies that have been so ill-managed they would otherwise collapse — airlines, car companies and banks — stagger（蹒跚）on because politicians ride to the rescue with bags of taxpayer money.

The genius of our unique system of government is the determination to protect and defend the rights of the individual over the rights of the nation. As such, the rise of a well-connected oligarchy that protects big business at the expense of small business, and the established over the new, is opposite to American ideals.

Income inequality — which is directly caused by faulty government policy — is being promoted as the reason to impose more of that bad policy. But let's be perfectly clear, we do not have a free market but one where government picks winners and losers through regulations and financial aids.

Politics is, and always has been, about balancing competing interests seeking to benefit themselves, and that's as it should be, but the force of government should never be used to reduce competition, kill innovation or support and extend artificial monopolies（垄断）by harming the consumer, the taxpayer and the economy. Policy must breed our new and small businesses or see the as-yet undreamed of innovations that could be our bright future die in infancy.

Where do you think the world’s happiest people live? Somewhere hot with sandy beaches? A country with a tradition of the fine food and culture? Not according to a recent study by the university of Leicester. Who are the happiest people on Earth? 【小题1】 Surprised? Well you’ll be more surprised when you hear that the Danes pay some of the highest taxes in the world. So what is the secret of their success?

Let’s start with all that tax they pay. The Danish government provides its people with one of the finest education and health systems in the world. It spends more on children and elderly people per capital than other country.

And there’s another advantage to those high taxes. Because a shop assistant’s final salary is not that much less than someone who works in a bank, for example, Danes don’t choose their careers based on money or status as people in other countries do. They choose the job they want to do. There’s a philosophy in Denmark known as “Jante-lov”, which translates as “you’re no better than anybody else.” 【小题2】 But workers in other countries are not used to looking at life in this way.

Money doesn’t seem as important in Denmark. It has been called a “post consumerist” society. 【小题3】 What is more important is the sense of society and it’s no surprise that Danes are very used to socializing. 92% of Danes belong to some kind of social club and these clubs are even paid for by the government.

【小题4】 They also show an amazing amount of trust in each other and their government. You can see sighs of this all over the country. You’ll find vegetable stalls with no assistant. You take what you want and leave the money in a basket. perhaps the bike is a good symbol for Denmark. The Danes can afford cars but they choose bikes—simple, economical, non-polluting machines that show no status and help keep people fit.

If a stranger offered you money to keep a suitcase in your spare room，would you accept? How about the other way round：if you had too many belongings，would you consider trusting someone you met online with their safekeeping? Anthony Paine believed enough of us would answer “yes” to these questions to launch his own startup(新兴公司)，Stashbee．His business links people with space to those who need it．

And it's just one player in the booming “sharing economy”，an industry that relies on people renting out things like their beds，bikes and even parking spaces．Airbnb，a company valued at 200bn RMB，provides a platform for those renting property short-term．DogVacay pairs holidaymaking pet owners with pet-friendly hosts，and aims to be profitable by 2017．

All their business models revolve around one simple word：trust．So，how does Stashbee measure up? BBC journalist Dougal Shaw decided to try it out for himself．He had some odds and ends to store while renovating his house，and met a host through the site who could keep them for 475 RMB for two months．All relatively smooth and painless．

Heavyweights(行业巨头)in the traditional storage industry，such as Big Yenow and Access，aren’t convinced．A representative from Access told Shaw he was skeptical about storing with “amateurs”．He considered 24／7(全天候) access to the items and better security as the main advantages of his service.

Stashbee agree that dealing with security concerns is important，but say business success depends more on people overcoming a distrust of strangers we’ve been taught since childhood. They aren’t alone．Companies such as Costockage，Roost and Spacer all run similar storage businesses，and are all relying on a shift in consumer attitudes．

And the concept of social storage doesn’t stop there．CityStasher believe there’s a gap in the market for those who want to store things for extremely short periods of time．

Would you try it out? It’s a question of trust．