Originally posted by WTFH
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I see three kinds of people here:
- Those who truly, in mind and in practice, operate as independent contractors. As so beautifully described by @cojak in https://www.contractoruk.com/forums/ir35-reform/129193-forced-into-contracting-read.html
- Those who heard the buzz word "contracting" and either entered into it willingly or forcefully without knowing what they were getting into and therefor susceptible to being exploited by their soon to be masters.
- Those who understand enough about contracting but with a false sense of believe as to just how far the "tax benefits" extend when operating under a limited company. The ultimate goal here is to reduce the tax liability and maximise net take-home. They have no sense of what true freedom is and the responsibilities that comes with it. They have no objections to being slaves to their masters and even though some are oblivious to the fact most use the excuse of proclaimed "financial benefit" to justify their true inner suffering.
The problem, as I see it, is that on a community/worker class level is that group 2 and 3 are characterised as being one in the same by group 1, resulting in material and psychological grievances between [group 1] and [group 2+3].
I'm sorry, but this has been described by the courts in many employment status disputes. The 2nd and 3rd group have been described by various high/supreme courts as being an "intermediate class of worker" or "limb b" and who are subordinate and usually carries out the work personally. Subordination does NOT and can NOT exist in group 1, yet somehow, on top of the already misguided grievances between the groups, they are now all grouped under one umbrella as "Self-employed", aka independent contractor!! No wonder it takes a supreme court judge to untangle this mess! Yet somehow we think we have all the answers by pointing fingers at one another?
How can three groups of people said to represent a single group when their ideology is fundamentally different. This is not a black and white problem and cannot be solved with force or economic penalties. In my opinion it would require exposing the elephant, educating the ignorant and punishing those who choose to continue after being so educated.
I hope you can see just how counter-productive these kind of remarks are. I'm not suggesting that we are somehow faultless in our ocean of despair, but our contribution to our collective suffering is mostly due to ignorance and NOT malevolence. The same cannot be said of those pulling the strings.
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