Anarcissie—What is an “independently funded unemployment insurance”?? (I cant type much right now)

It sounds very Libertarian to me. Of course one should be able to choose to be an “independent contractor”. The trend certainly hasnt increased the standard of living for the majority here. It might save alot of money if we didnt have to implement labor laws and employers could do as they wished, and, one can always quit—if they have that independent fund you spoke of, but I dont know of anyone that does.

In the EU, they prevent employers from cutting wages for time off. There is no reason we couldnt do that here.

Sorry a no more cogent argument. I just shouldnt be typing. I’ll do it later…

“In New York, the most stratified state,”

Ummm, maybe you should have tried “In New York, the most visibly stratified state.”

KDelphi:
’... Declaring workers as ‘independent contractors” is the latest trick in huge corporations bag of tricks to deny people benefits like full time work, health care (as if anyone offers that anymore), sick time, etc. ...’

I have preferred being an independent contractor, myself.  You have to figure any benefits you get, monetary or not, are coming out of the same kitty, and you can often do better by getting hold of the money further upstream and handling it yourself.  What I most strongly dislike about the traditional employer-employee relationship, though, is the politics.  It’s quasi-feudal.  Employers think they have the right to investigate and comment on your personality, your social relationships, and your personal habits.  Please!  There is also a cookie-cutter mentality about things like working hours and time off.  You can’t just take a cut in pay for more vacation time, or a cut in vacation for more pay, regardless of your condition or the employer’s—instead, any variation is a tremendous hassle.  Finally, one employer told me legal requirements made regular employees much more costly than contractors, and as I said above, it all comes out of the same kitty.  If the employer can’t exploit the worker for a profit, the job isn’t going to be there, regardless of the worker’s status.

I think in a wider political and cultural sense, the shifting of work from traditional employment to contracting is a good thing because it weakens the bonds between the employers (and thus the state) and the worker.  This means workers will be harder to manipulate and control.  For instance, if the worker has accumulated savings as her personal unemployment insurance fund, and the employer gives her a hard time, she can just quit instead of take the abuse. 

As I said before, the really curious thing about the project of forcing contractors to be employees is that no one seems to want it for themselves, and it doesn’t appear to benefit anybody, yet periodically legislatures and bureaucrats get up in arms about it.  I don’t see the payoff.  Higher taxes, maybe; or they just like the control.

Unions in the US suck—that doesnt make what corporations get away with just.

Declaring workers as ‘independent contractors” is the latest trick in huge corporations bag of tricks to deny people benefits like full time work, health care (as if anyone offers that anymore), sick time, etc.

It is simply a way to get out of implementing laws. A true civilization would not allow it. If allowed to flourish, everyone will be a “temp” worker with no benefits , except what they can afford to pay form, recieving whatever wage the corp deciese, because you are not an “
employee”, you are a “privateer”!

Laissez-fare Capitaliats see people (people?) as constantly (and I do meant constantly—day to day)“marketing” their “services” in constant competition with everyone else on the planet, who is a “Private contractor”. If you like the idea of being in constant competiton with elites who inherited big advantages and who inherited control of private corporataions, you’ll like this crap.(the level playing field concept here is laughable)

I have a whole article on it, but, my RA is killing me today, so I will have to post it later.

There is also an article in the Washington Post today that tells how much money each member of Congress has invested in private health care and all the banks that they bailed out.

Anarcissie is correct that state government is not local. Come to think of it, nearly all smaller forms of government are simply scaled down versions of the eternal pecking order of which squeaky wheel gets the grease. County Commissioners do not give a damn about what a neighborhood thinks, if it opposes some plan they consider to be part of “moving forward”.

The change taking place locally is happening despite both federal and state legislatures.  They both serve the wealthy.  Change is much closer to the earth than are legislatures.

Cathy—I had a similar problem, but fortunately although I was working in New Jersey I could claim to be a New Yorker working for a New York company. 

I was trying to figure out what the payoff is.  There is certainly no public outcry demanding that contractors be made into employees—many of the contractors would lose their jobs, in fact.  There don’t seem to be any unions involved.  The employers can’t like it.  So what do you think—higher taxes?  More control over people?

“Speaking of revenues and income, President Obama’s Labor Department is slowly ramping up federal wage enforcement—a move that mirrors the states. This year, 10 states passed or considered legislation increasing fines on businesses that illegally misclassify workers as independent contractors so as to avoid paying taxes and employee benefits.”

I work as an independent contractor doing legal transcription.  I live in New York but became certified in New Jersey in 1997.  I take work from one New Jersey agency and, frankly, there’s been enough work so that I don’t have to look elsewhere.  Besides, unlike many of the places I worked for in New York the people I work for do the work that I do and are fair.  All of my equipment is mine (unlike when I worked for agencies in New York) and, believe me, it isn’t cheap. 

Anyway, last year we had a major scare because they were trying to say that we were not independent contractors, and it was pretty crazy for a while.  Had we been considered employees the costs would have been crippling to use.  We would have each had to become one-person corporations—big expense.  The page rates are not high and how much you make an hour depends on your typing speed and the quality of the tapes (believe me, there are times when I’ve made $30 and too often there have been times I have made $10 an hour or less). 

I know that some companies take advantage of this independent contractor thing, but I surely hope that we never have to fight this battle again.  I am lucky if I clear close to $40,000 (gross, before expenses and taxes) a year—very lucky.  It’s bad enough that I can’t afford health care.

It’s amusing to see that David Sirota has discovered state governments.  However, he’s wrong about a couple of things.  For one thing, state governments aren’t “local”.  In any case, New York (state and city) are not meeting their budget shortfalls by taxing the rich; they’re planning to tax the poor, by cutting services like public schools and transportation, and by raising the already astronomical sales tax.