Yep, "trend that isn't going away."
I'm going to ask you people to reread my article about "The 1099 Superior Race" and how Corporate America will simply NOT be able to survive the forced politics the millennials and Gen X'ers has forced upon it. And not only that, but you should know that such an entity will not offer ANY real opportunities to smart people who just want to excel at their job, be the best they can be, and work hard. Politics will be the future of large corporate employers and any sane, talent should steer far away from them. AT BEST using them for a resume booster early in your career, but PLEASE, save your talented later years for yourself via 1099 employment.
My preferred pronouns are you/them/mine. Please respect me.
ReplyDeleteSorry the post have been fill
DeleteAaron,
ReplyDeleteRead your 1099 piece. In the main I agree with the points made. This from a man who lived the corporate W2 life for approximately 25 years. However there are some points that I diverge:
* Corps being shells of themselves. Won't happen in 50 years, it was happening when I was at the largest telco back in 2000. This is well on the way; just look at the state that GE is in today.
* Don't assume that Corps are anti-telecommute. I did it for 10 years in a Corp even though the office was 20min away. I had superior compute platforms at home than the Corp resources. Better work environment without interruption. That being said there are those that I call the 'touch you' managers. They just assign work based on the first person they see.
* I agree that the office politics are a drag. There is a downside to the remote worker -- out of sight, out of mind -- as far as promotions, projects, etc. Now a 1099er may not care, but I will tell you that there is the case where if you are not in the office you won't know that there is another project coming down the pike that you wish to bid for.
* "If you're merely a hired gun to do some kind of project or specialist work of some kind, you are not enslaved to the company either by hours or contract." Sorry that is just not reality vis a vis contractual obligations. You go to work as a hired gun for a Fortune 5000 you will sign a contract and possibly a NDA. The contract will specify the duties which might include when, where and how work is to be performed.
The component you should have added is, working as a 1099er your goal is to develop a physical manifestation of your skill set. If all one does is program under contract one will always be a whore looking for the next gig. On the other hand if over time ones programming skills and seredipidty of opportunity collide, giving rise to a saleable good... Well you are miles ahead. One is no longer a whore but a entity with a mousetrap that other individuals desire to have. It turns the tables on your relationship to the world at large.
Newspeak is now at hand. How Orwell was able to predict this is astounding. My prediction for the future is a nightmare combination of Orwell and Huxley. A global police state technologically enforcing the dogma of its high priest until individuality is forever crushed under the heel of a jack boot and the only survival option is sheepdom.
ReplyDeleteChina is leading the way with their social credit system based upon facial recognition software and continious camera surveillance. Conformity is rewarded. Heresey is ruthlessly punished. A similar system is now sprouting in the West.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. Thankfully, being 64 years old, I will be dead when the nightmare blooms to maturity. Unfortunately, I believe I will live the last of my years in its growing shadow.
I usually reply to someone introducing themselves and telling me what their personal pronouns are with an absurd answer for MY personal pronouns, which will hopefully point out to them how absurd they're being.
ReplyDeleteIf this is the start of a business transaction, this absurdity generally will serve to lower my expectations of the person who thinks me knowing that they are part of some made up gender is more important than what I'm hiring them for.
Your article was brilliant. I'm working on my 1099 strategy right now; IT certs in the short term, DBA certs in the long term.
ReplyDeleteIf I hear the terms agile and iterate a few more times, I may just implode into a pile of goo
ReplyDelete1099? W2? Remote W2? S-Corp? C-Corp? LLC?
ReplyDeleteAll of it puts you under an American tax umbrella.
If you're going to pay taxes anyway, why not structure your taxes in a way where you're paying less in taxes and getting more out of it?
Global tax geo-arbitrage, that's where it's at.
Caricom-based IBCs? Austrian annuities? Gold in a Singapore vault?
Even the UK charges less in corporate taxes if that's where your head's at.
There's a jurisdiction in which your company can post its earnings and then pay nearly zero taxes itself -- most taxes there are based on value added tax (VAT), use taxes, and stamp taxes. The legal code is based on English common law and in some cases (which are rare), you can appeal your case to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.
Payments to non-citizens are taxed at ten percent, and of course that ten percent tax is deductible on your 1040s and such like, so you'll still wind up owing the same tax on personal income while getting more out of your corporate income, which is how you'll build your fortune.
Anyone else here remember Neil Strauss and his book "Emergency" where he got a sharp tax advisor who deals with global tax geo-arbitrage scenarios? Or do you all just remember his "Game" shite and how he fancied himself as "Style" for a few years?
So once again: 1099? W2? Remote W2? S-Corp? C-Corp? LLC?
All of it makes you a tax serf working on the American tax farm.
Now if some of you are actually black marketeers, I can have respect for that, but serfs comparing how they're not serfs on a serfs-only scale?
Ain't nobody got time and respect for that!
Tim Ferriss used to go around telling people how he was a drug dealer because he pimped his own supplements -- that's honest at least, and it's a lot more honest than trying to claim that you're a Special Privileges Fairy just for the type of employment arrangement you've been able to wrangle.
He also worked out this deal where he didn't have to work too hard, so there's that.