1099 Economy

The 1099 is a IRS tax form where a company reports what they paid independent contractors.  When I lecture for schools, or present at industry conferences, I am usually issued a 1099 for that activity.  I know the hegemon has a problem with this, because some schools run in fear from the IRS and the 1099 rules.

Wired Magazine is one of the selected winners that get enough support form the hegemon so they crowd out other ideas.  One of their writers has something to say about 1099 economy as he puts it.

I spent a decade freelancing, a 1099 contractor, and it was fantastic. I had a freedom most people could only dream of. There was no boss to answer to other than myself. I made decent money too, not initially, but I hustled and worked hard and made it. The American way.

This sounds good, right? But wait, the 1099?  When I was a kid, all the work done which is now reported on a 1099 was done and paid and NOT reported on a 1099 and not taxed.

But getting taxes is not enough.  You must also opt-in to what the hegemon calls social services, like health care.  So the writer hits the hegemonic notes:

How are we, as a society, going to deal with that? Going to deal with them? What will it mean if we completely remake our workforce of laborers into contractors without the myriad benefits we associate with full-time employment? Who ultimately benefits when they don’t?

See, never mind the decade he was happily a independent contractor, he must also have the hegemon "benefits"!  (This thinking is called fascism.)

And the solution:

There are forces at work to put the brakes on all this. Current lawsuits in San Francisco, for example, seek to have Uber and Lyft drivers reclassified as employees. Because there are rules about who is a contractor, and who is not. We are a nation of law, and the law is not something arbitrary, given to us by God or kings, but rather it is something we have agreed upon, and that we can remake. Laws can be rewritten. And often it is the wealthy and powerful who write them. 

More rules!  Less options!  And yes, the wealthy and powerful who own Buzzfeed write the rules, and they want the Hegemon to take responsibility for their employees, no more of these pesky free-lancers.  And Buzzfeed is quick to suppress any criticism of its advertisers.

There is one crucial element in every winning dot-com start-up: it concentrates users and reports to the hegemon human activity, even when it swears it does not.  If you help the feds by self-reporting and narrowing tax avoidance opportunities, then your chances of winning increase, but if you lower taxing opportunitiex and advance freedom, you ain't got a chance.

Here are some comments:

Brad Bulger · Follow · Goin' down down down at Coal Mine

Or we could just provide for people as people, as citizens, and not make their well-being dependent on an employer. Plenty of people are in exactly the most terrible situation you envision here after having been full-on full-time employees for decades. But that would be ... SOCIALISTISM duhduhduh!

Reply · Like · 10 · Follow Post · February 4 at 1:12pm

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  Steve Beinart ·  Top Commenter · SUNY New Paltz

  The problem, Brad, is the question of where will the money/resources come from to pay people for just existing? Yes, we can send soldiers to confiscate the rich guy's money. And when that's gone?

  Reply · Like · February 5 at 8:33am

And further, the resources for this regime come from stealing it from around the world, places like Iraq where "they can pay for their own reconstruction."  That just isn't working out so well, perhaps because bright young Brad Bulger leaves it to the poverty draft to keep people in participation-free existence.

We can make more war, or, we can offer freedom.  I think those are the only two options.

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