The assumption of employment is all around us. I'm not knocking employment. Quite the contrary: Image via Wikipedia Rule of Work: Your work is not the venue. Whether your work is best conducted as an employee, contractor, entrepreneur, or volunteer, pursue the venue where you can derive from your work all the meaning you are intended to have. But it's sort of like … [Read more...]
Freelancing vs. Mom’s Couch
CBS was talking this evening about the growth of freelance work - projecting significant growth over the next couple of years. What was striking was how negative the reporting seemed. One of the two people interviewed was saying "the important thing is not to be idle" and the reporter presented freelancing as being just one rung above collecting unemployment - with employment … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Rapes the Free World. Again.
Usually, I won't make political comments, but in this case, they've walked into territory we've claimed as our own, so here goes: Image via Wikipedia The latest move by the Supreme Court to lift all corporate limits on campaign contributions is clearly aimed at preventing a repeat of the Obama election, who didn't put them in office. Sure, he'll be re-elected. But then … [Read more...]
Reclaiming the Meaning of Money & Time
A friend and I were talking the other day about how we're so used to thinking, as employees, of everything as net. The company takes out taxes and healthcare, and what's left - that's what you live on. But when you're self-employed, you pay self-employment tax on top of your income tax, and you have to bank that out of every deal. So If you made $400, you really only made $200. … [Read more...]
Social Compact for Work Changes
Frankly, I find it hard to think of a recession only in terms of the numbers that matter to the people that got us into one. It's still a recession, or worse (we don't like the word depression), if people are hunting for jobs for 16months, qualified people with degrees are still losing their houses for not finding work, and applicants are having to go through eight interviews … [Read more...]