Business Licensing in America

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A friend from Malaysia asked me last night asked about my business license, how much it was and so on, Well first off I replied, I have far more than one, so the next obvious question is "how many and how much"?
Fair question so here goes, First I have the county license, 50.00, next I have my Septic license which is 300.00, Truck license which is about 230, license for GVW depending on how much weight I want my truck to be able to legally haul (silly I know), another 60 or so, workers compensation has to be paid up front, that is based on an estimated payroll and number of employee's lets say 350 just to keep it easy, fire fighting card 85.00, licensing for Emergency Equipment for the forest service (supposed to be every three years but ends up being every year do to the powers that be transferring responsibilities to other bureaus), and then Orca, and CCR all three which are free.
Every two years I have to have my contractors license 225 dollars & contractors exemption license, I forget the price. so she is shocked, saying that in her country, there is but one license.
So my grand licensing equals 1215 dollars every two years and 990 each year, she is appalled, saying there you only need a single license.
I did not cover permits needed for various hauling and building I do as well, more shock on her end.
And we wonder why America has a 90 percent failure rate on business, everyone has their hand out.