While the media obsesses over Marco Rubio’s traffic tickets and over a flag that supposedly convinced a sick evil punk to be a racist and murderer, Obama and his crew add more and more regulations that will impact businesses and ultimately consumers. It’s not enough to have the lowest labor participation rate in decades as businesses continue to close and/or downsize, but Obama seemingly wants even higher unemployment since he is set to sign nearly 2,400 new rules–that we know of–into place this year, which makes it roughly 23,400 new rules totaling almost 500,000 pages since he took office. Many of those rules have and will impact small business and your bottom line.
Americans who lost their jobs have resorted to freelance work, taking more than one part-time job for considerably less pay, renting out rooms in their homes…anything to bring in money. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) thinks this is exciting because work/life balance and freedom from joblock! Woohoo! But he does have just one problem with it. Disguised as “concern” for the worker, ya see, government doesn’t have enough hands in this pot.
But many of the business models in this on-demand economy are built on the premise that workers are independent contractors, not employees. That means companies do not have to pay costs such as health insurance or retirement benefits. They also typically do not pay a share of unemployment or workers’ compensation coverage.
Sen. Warner actually suggests that “we could look to the Affordable Care Act’s health-care exchanges as a public-private model” to fix this. I mean, we all know how well that’s going, right? Also he pitches the proposed tax to extend internet service on your dime to people who don’t have it. Oh, and don’t forget student loans! While you are possibly struggling to pay off your own student loans or helping your child pay theirs, you might as well pay for someone else’s, too!
Thank you so much, Senator Warner, for your enthusiasm for the creative “gig economy” we are supposedly relishing in and for your deep care and concern for the little people, but we’ll pass on your ideas to “fix” the problem.
