THE local economy has lost more than 8,000 people who were self employed since the start of the recession. This is an outrageous state of affairs and I put the blame firmly at the door of the Spanish government who have taxed small traders out of existence. The self employed are the mainstay of any economy. It is thanks to their hard work and dedication that the economic scales can dip between economic growth and recession. But not in Spain. The Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy has made sure that those who are self employed have to work even longer just to pay government taxes which are now more than 300 euros a month, in some cases much more. This is a hefty sum if you are self employed and effectively means that you spend a quarter or more of every month working for the taxman. As I have said in previous Viewpoints there are no signs of real economic recovery in the Balearics. Local consumers continue to watch their pennies. But the Spanish government has an enormous black hole in their finances so they have decided to tax small traders heavily. So much so that 8,000 have gone to the wall in four years. If the government wants the country to return to economic health it should reduce the tax burden on those who are self employed not increase it. Many lessons can be learnt from this economic slowdown but one which stands out for me is that you shouldn´t over tax the people who will save the country from economic ruin.