Right now, only 20% of the US workforce are self-employed, and a quarter of them are professionals (lawyers and doctors mostly). That means 16% of the population are running a business which is not expected to be a medical or legal business.
Most people esp. in the current economy, are not in a position to turn down a job offer. This means they want work more than the company wants to hire them. This is a major source of a power differential. If, on the other hand, the boundary between employment and self-employment is porous, this means that companies not only have to compete with eachother to hire said janitor, but they also have to compete with the fact that they could hire said janitor's ability to be self-employed.
The point is it is a clear shift.
Right now minimum wage laws are too low. We should at least set them high enough that people have no need of welfare when having a minimum wage job. As it is they are a nice way to tell us we are protecting the worker when in fact we are doing no such thing. When you combine it with welfare, you have solid incentives for low-paid workers not to become self-employed and thus the welfare and minimum wage scheme we have right now are actual tools in the class war by the wealthy against everyone else.
Most people esp. in the current economy, are not in a position to turn down a job offer. This means they want work more than the company wants to hire them. This is a major source of a power differential. If, on the other hand, the boundary between employment and self-employment is porous, this means that companies not only have to compete with eachother to hire said janitor, but they also have to compete with the fact that they could hire said janitor's ability to be self-employed.
The point is it is a clear shift.
Right now minimum wage laws are too low. We should at least set them high enough that people have no need of welfare when having a minimum wage job. As it is they are a nice way to tell us we are protecting the worker when in fact we are doing no such thing. When you combine it with welfare, you have solid incentives for low-paid workers not to become self-employed and thus the welfare and minimum wage scheme we have right now are actual tools in the class war by the wealthy against everyone else.