Posts Tagged ‘ independent contractor ’

What They Really Think

Mar 15th, 2010 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Policy Matters

On the one hand, everybody on Capitol Hill loves small businesses. Small businesses, any of them will tell you, will drag our collective chestnuts out of the recessionary fire and lead the way back to good times.

On the other hand, nobody on Capitol Hill seems to be willing to refer to the probable current surge in nonemployer businesses as a positive development. They know that “forced entrepreneurship” is happening. They view it as a sign of a poor economic environment.

After all, if all those people had jobs, then they wouldn’t need to … what? Become entrepreneurs?



Bambi Versus Godzilla

Feb 15th, 2010 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Policy Matters

Judging from this week’s news, you have to ask yourself if our nation’s leaders will, without possessing the vestige of a clue, end up destroying what they have not the wit to appreciate.

I’m talking about those proposed rules targeting firms and individuals (but mostly firms) that hire independent contractors.

Now, although this proposal is said to be a part of the President’s budget (and it is), it was actually proposed jointly by the Departments of Labor and the Treasury, and their respective Secretaries, Hilda Solis and Tim Geithner. They illustrate that mid-20th century political philosophies also are a poor fit for the way microbusinesses do business.