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Gig Worker, Freelancer, Independent Contractor … Whatever you call yourself - this is important …
Both these extracts taken from Stowe Boyds’ Newsletter today If you sent already track him … you should.
Uber
”These requests put Uber in a bind. The firm insists that its drivers are independent, self-employed sole traders. But the drivers suspect that full datasets would show that Uber uses information it gleans about drivers to manage them through algorithms, highlighting a lack of independence that weakens Uber’s argument.”
Freelance Journalism
”But it’s part B that presents a problem for freelance journalists: someone is an independent contractor only if they perform work “outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” In the archetypal example, a plumber fixing a restaurant toilet clearly qualifies. A freelancer journalist writing a column for a magazine? Not so much.
My Take
It is an ongoing problem that needs a real resolution. Fast. It serves Corporates very well to allow them to lower headcount and increase freelancers for any number of reasons … but people are still just counted as people.
If Corporations really are people (thank you Mitt) - … they’re not - but lets say that we accept that … then People are Corporations. But that is not how we are treated. We are still treated as a cog in a corporate machine.
What say whether you work independently or for a corporation … you get to choose how your taxes are paid / collected .
You get the benefit that IF you earn a lot of money on one year - and not so much on the next that you can manage the two years together and reduce your tax burden
If it made no difference as to whether a person was employed full time inside of a corporation or as a freelancer or worked for themselves, then don’t all these problems go away? Well - ok - not the Uber problem … that’s different - if connected.
people.centered.economy future.of.work observations