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The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

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Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#151

Post by notyourday »

ryandrake wrote: post #142
Consultant32452 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consulted for 5 years. I bought my own health insurance, and short and long term disability. I budgeted properly so that I could easily weather periods of time between contracts. This is all while being a single father. It's really not difficult, the hardest part for most people seems to be being responsible with your money. It's certainly not a matter of luck though. The only reason I stopped is because someone of…

Did you ever require care that was not covered by insurance or maxed out your coverage? Or have an expensive pre-existing condition? There's certainly an element of luck involved, especially when it comes to the US healthcare system!

There's an element of luck involved in absolutely everything.

Not specifically to you but this conversation is highly interesting because it demonstrates the two different attitudes - one from the person you were replying to and one from pretty much everyone else.

In software engineering it is the attitude of people who come up with a solution to their problem as compared to the attitude of the people who are complaining that the solution is not general enough and therefore should not be considered a solution.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#152

Post by adventured »

maxxxxx wrote: post #23
wincy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should be able to get health insurance and bargain based on community groups or individually tax-free rather than by employer. If the entire Mormon church could collective bargain for health insurance for its members it would be WAY cheaper than any employer (because they don't drink alcohol or smoke).

Just make one big risk pool nationwide. Easy to administer .

The parent was suggesting a superior risk pool. One big risk pool nation-wide isn't superior. The bottom 50% of healthcare consumers represent a mere 3% of all healthcare spending each year. That's the ideal risk pool, we know who that pool consists of: overwhelmingly younger people.

5% of healthcare consumers, are responsible for about 50% of all healthcare costs. That pool consists overwhelmingly of people over the age of 50. That's the high risk pool. Including them into any pool, isn't an improvement to the pool's cost structure.

What you're arguing for is that including them is superior morally. That's a perfectly legitimate premise obviously. It's radically inferior financially/economically, if we're talking about building risk pools.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#153

Post by Consultant32452 »

rectang wrote: post #140
Consultant32452 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/06/27... This is from an article complaining about how little Uber drivers make... >But in three large metropolitan cities, drivers make far less than the national average, about $20 per hour, after expenses.

That Washington Post article is garbage. It cites as the source of its numbers, the Buzzfeed article I quoted. But the only place the number "$20" appears in the Buzzfeed article is this: "None of these advertisements mention driver expenses. The same goes for the alerts Uber sends to drivers — sometimes five times a day or more — telling them that other drivers on the road were making $20 or $30 an hour in gross far…

Okay, so the first google result I found had an inflated number. I don't really get what point you're trying to get to. If you think I'm arguing Uber is a good/lucrative place to work, I'm not.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#154

Post by virmundi »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #83
virmundi wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. States set what insurance can allow. If your state blocks small groups from getting insurance, then you’re out in the cold. http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2011/05/02/group-health-...

> States set what insurance can allow. Why? From my perspective the whole problem with healthcare and insurance is these are way far from a free markets. Wouldn't it be better if the insurance companies would just look at what people want and offer just that for the prices that make both sides interested?

I don't think the states should have much power over this particular market. Insurance definitionally crosses state bounds. If I get in a car accident in Kentucky, Florida blue still pays my bills. This is clearly a federal commerce clause issue. If that's the case, the Feds should bust the limits.

Specifically I was replying to the idea of incorporating a large group outside the bounds of a company for insurance purposes. As it stands, the states may block it.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#155

Post by ttoinou »

eppsilon wrote: post #102
ttoinou wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could you be independent if you all buy the same brand of smartphone ? Why couldn't independent unite themselves voluntarily ?

If only all the people in a given country were united under some common organization that could negotiate on their behalf....

Negotiate with who ? They set the rules

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#156

Post by Consultant32452 »

notyourday wrote: post #151
ryandrake wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ever require care that was not covered by insurance or maxed out your coverage? Or have an expensive pre-existing condition? There's certainly an element of luck involved, especially when it comes to the US healthcare system!

There's an element of luck involved in absolutely everything. Not specifically to you but this conversation is highly interesting because it demonstrates the two different attitudes - one from the person you were replying to and one from pretty much everyone else. In software engineering it is the attitude of people who come up with a solution to their problem as compared to the attitude of the people who are complai…

That's a really interesting comment. I had taken it a little differently.

It feels to me that our minds have been atrophied by generations of being told that we can't do anything. Forget budgeting a small business, we can't even budget for our own family. Someone else, be it the government or our employer, has to provide some universal solution to all my problems like saving for retirement or being able to buy an antibiotic for my kid. So someone presents a solution, and rather than being able to take that, adjust it to our individual needs, our psyche is so weak that we just sit back and try to figure out all the ways we can avoid taking agency in our own lives, we need big brother to solve it for us.

Ultimately it's perhaps the same thing though. In your scenario people want to pick apart the solution so they can return back to deciding that their employer or the government has to provide a solution for them.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#157

Post by SamReidHughes »

rectang wrote: post #147
SamReidHughes wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to America's current health care regulations it's not zero sum at all.

If employer-based insurance goes away, it will be replaced with nothing. The effect will be to lower compensation -- a win for employers, and a loss for workers. That's the lesson of the Gig Economy, perhaps even the primary reason that the Gig Economy is so heavily sold: it is advantageous for employers.

Or it will be replaced by all sorts of alternatives like total market anarchy, fully nationalized healthcare, or some replica of another country's system, all of which would be a big improvement cost-wise.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#158

Post by walshemj »

acconrad wrote: post #76

Am I in the minority here for being a contract developer who is happy to be in this place? * I make over 40% more than I did when I was full-time, and I was already in the top band for pay in my title. This far exceeds the 15% markup for self-employment tax. * My wife works full time so she has our back for health insurance * I can save way more for retirement with an SEP IRA than I ever could with a company-sponsore…

Only 40% is this net? I would be aiming for > 100% Gross as a it contactor in the UK and pay less tax.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#159

Post by ThrustVectoring »

hatsubai wrote: post #110
40acres wrote: post #5

> Within a decade, contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce. This is pretty shocking to me. With recent trends you can easily see that the other half of the population will be people in IT and health care (home service providers, nurses, etc.) I've never had a contract job, I'm not sure if part-time college jobs count, are contract employees getting work via an agency or are they on th…

I am a contract employee who gets work via an agency. I have full health benefits (health, vision, dental which costs me about $200/mo), paid holiday, vacation, and even paid overtime (1.5x my hourly rate). All of this was negotiated ahead of time, along with the salary range I was looking for. Any new opportunities that are available, my agency contacts me and asks if I am interested in doing work there, or if I wan…

>the only real downsides being no 401k matching

That's not exactly a downside from a total compensation perspective, so long as you are considered self-employed for setting up a one-participant 401k. You get significantly more control over what portion of your total compensation is taxable vs tax-deferred.

Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce

#160

Post by walshemj »

adventured wrote: post #152
maxxxxx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make one big risk pool nationwide. Easy to administer .

The parent was suggesting a superior risk pool. One big risk pool nation-wide isn't superior. The bottom 50% of healthcare consumers represent a mere 3% of all healthcare spending each year. That's the ideal risk pool, we know who that pool consists of: overwhelmingly younger people. 5% of healthcare consumers, are responsible for about 50% of all healthcare costs. That pool consists overwhelmingly of people over the…

Well eventually those young people will be over 50 and make more call on health services.
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