Instead of a preface
Industrial capitalism owes its flourishing to the emergence of LLCs and joint-stock companies... in their modern understanding. More precisely, “limited liability” within the authorized or share capital. Until the end of the 19th century, an entrepreneur (the owner of capital in Marx’s interpretation) bore full responsibility for the obligations of the enterprise and almost went to debtor’s prison. Therefore, factories with 20-30 people were considered huge.
The need for consolidated investments in new, ever-expanding businesses and the emergence of a plurality of co-owners also required legal instruments in the form of limited risks for the entrepreneur.
Following LLC and JSC, bankruptcy legislation has also improved. By the beginning of the 20th century, rules were universally introduced to write off most debts by creditors as part of bankruptcy.
In Russia, as always, the path is special. Over the past few years, the law has stubbornly followed the path of tightening the liability of company managers and founders. Including in bankruptcy.
As of 2020, the range of tools for punishing losers is huge and cool at the same time, which will certainly lead to the extinction of entrepreneurial activity among small and middle-aged people.
Think about it: over the past 10 years, the cost of entering a business for a new entrepreneur has increased 100 times! since risks in the ruble equivalent of potential liability should also be considered as an initial investment in the business.
We agree that an entrepreneur should behave reasonably. Yes, this is an activity at his own risk. But an entrepreneur cannot and should not be held responsible for the double deliberate devaluation of the ruble, for example... and even more so for the subsequent massive withdrawals of loans by banks. He cannot be held responsible for the end-to-end system of big business kickbacks.
For twenty years of condoning the almost universal use of “fly-by-night money” (including as a consequence of the end-to-end system of kickbacks), and then for a sharp change in the rules of the game - from tax rules to lending conditions.
