
Self-employment, or the illusion of freedom - mgunes
http://libcom.org/library/self-employment-or-illusion-freedom
======
padobson
I feel like this article lacks a fundamental understanding of the labor
market.

The beauty of being self employed and working for multiple clients means that,
if you are constantly promoting your skills, you can accelerate your way up
the proverbial ladder.

If you get a "real job", you might have an opportunity for a raise or a
promotion once every year; 6 months at best.

Working for yourself, you can have that opportunity every day. If your client
wants to maintain freedom with you by hiring you as a freelancer, then there's
no reason you can't do the same with them. Only committing 10-20 hours a week
to a client allows you to do that.

Get a client for $10/hr at 20 hours a week, then start shopping for a client
at $15/hr at 15 hours a week. Once you find that, look for a $30/hr client at
20 hours a week. When you find that, dump the $10/hr client and start looking
for a $40/hr client.

THAT is how you climb the ladder. And it doesn't just have to be about money -
you can substitute money for creative freedom or benefits or working
conditions or whatever you're in the labor market for.

------
quesera
Title is deceptive.

This article is a personal account of an office worker in the film industry in
France.

Interesting, maybe, but not what you were probably expecting here.

~~~
jmitcheson
Title could be better, but I found it an OK-read. The leap from film work to
software work isn't a huge one (today's startup guy is yesterday's starving
artist)

This passage in particular is where it begins to get more general

" The whole “start-your-own-company, be-your-own-boss” racket is heavily
pushed by government agencies and all kinds of employers. It was first put
forth as a solution to high unemployment unemployment and then, less openly,
as a route to cut costs and erode worker solidarity and class consciousness.
It relies on people’s underlying hatred of work, personified by the boss, and
sells the dream of autonomy by telling people that they can become their own,
fake, boss. The reality is different."

~~~
quesera
Yes, sociologically/anthropologically interesting.

But not relevant to the startup world in the few countries I'm familiar with.

I've worked in France. Lovely place, but it's a socialist country with next to
no startup culture (note, I was there more than ten years ago). I don't mean
"socialist" as a pejorative, except to the extent that it inhibits the startup
culture, and even then only for the HN audience.

Just suggesting that many people on HN, reading the title, would have expected
a very different and more relevant article.

I don't agree with the characterization of govt and attitudes toward work and
bosses in your quoted passage...not in my anecdotal experience, outside of
France.

But one truth is clear: working "for yourself" and having "no boss" is almost
always just code for having no administrative support and having to please
multiple customers with significant, open-ended, and sometimes conflicting
demands. Learning to manage these situations is clearly more effort than
"getting a job", so it's not attractive or successful for everyone.

