May 04, 2021

Biden*Harris regime getting ready to outlaw "gig work" to pay off unions--all workers would have to be "employees"

 Government has several almost infinitely powerful advantages that businesses don't have:

  • Government can confiscate as much money from citizens (taxes) as it wants to;
  • If government needs more money than it can squeeze from citizens (without being overthrown), government can borrow whatever it wants;
  • If investors (China and others) refuse to buy as many T-bills as the govt needs, government can simply print money;
  • Unlike businesses, government can operate at a loss ("deficit spending") essentially forever;
  • Finally, if a business continually loses money, it eventually goes out of business; government doesn't ever have to be concerned about that;

Now:  Most sane governments love job creation by the private sector.  The key word there is "supposedly."  Do you really think Team Biden*Harris gives a flying f about private-sector jobs?  If they did, they wouldn't be keeping the lockdowns and endless masking dictats long after the CDC said "This has no benefit whatsoever."

Instead, Team Biden*Harris and their corrupt Democrat party hacks in congress have passed dictats--some without a single Republican vote--that pay people so much money to NOT work that businesses are having a hard time reopening after the lockdowns because employees can make more by staying at home watching Netflix.

"But wait, there's more!"  In 2017 the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 55 million people in the US were what are called "gig workers"--freelance workers who do high-demand or specialty work for lots of clients or companies.  Freelance court reporters, freelance writers, jazz or rock trios, freelance editors, people who pick up extra income driving for Uber or Lyft...this is just a tiny example of the variety of "gigs," so hopefully you get the picture.

Fifty-five *million* workers is about 34% of the entire US workforce.  Yet the Democrats have already introduced a bill--soon to be law--that would essentially eliminate all these jobs.

Naturally you can't believe that.  I mean, why in the world would a rational government pass a law that would destroy roughly 55 million American jobs, eh?

Turns out the reason for the Democrat bill to abolish all freelance jobs will shock you: it's to curry favor with powerful unions., which shovel massive amounts of dues money into the Democrat party.

Know how many Americans drive for Uber and Lyft?  Uber: 800,000.  Lyft: Some source report 1.4 million.  Now: How much money do you think taxi companies have lost to those two companies?  Lyft billed $2.36 Billion.  Uber reported a whopping $11.4 Billion.  So the incentives are huge.

Now: How much would the Transit Workers' Union make if they can get the Democrat administration to force Uber and Lyft to unionize?  Since driving for either group is definitely a part-time second-job gig, the union might cut the companies a special deal: for a ballpark figure let's say just ten percent of billings.

That's ten percent of $13.7 Billion per year, or $1.37 Billion in extra dues for the union EVERY YEAR.  Think a few tens of millions won't flow into the pockets of Dem congresscritters and their aides?  Or into Hunter's pocket?  

If you still think the Dems aren't doing this at the urging of the unions I've got a great deal for ya on a bridge to Brooklyn.

"AHA!," I hear my liberal friends yelling.  "You said the bill (soon to be law) would wipe out 55 million jobs!  But in the example you just used, you assumed all the drivers would keep their jobs, but just as employees and union members instead of independent contractors!  So neener neener neener!"

Yeah, you're right: I was just doing a first hack estimate.  In reality we know the cost of providing company-paid health care for drivers will be enormous, and will cause Uber and Lyft to only hire drivers who can drive full time.  But at least those two companies will stay in business, merely raising their prices 50 or 100 percent.  But what about freelance contractors who can't feasibly get hired by a company?

Of course the Democrats *generously* provided a workaround:  Never let it be said that the Dems don't look out for the Little Guy!  The generous workaround is that anyone wanting to freelance would have to form a "personal corporation"--the owner is the sole employee.  In California the median cost of doing this seems to be around $2,500, but then there are annual license fees from the state, and extra tax returns for the company, both fed and state.

The tax prep alone will average about $2,000 per year.  How many of those 55 million gig workers can afford that much out-of-pocked cost, or that much of a hit to their takehome pay?  So most of 'em will probably wind up on unemployment, or join the folks demanding new trillion-dollar "relief bills" from the Dems.

Of course many of you probably find it hard to believe that the Democrats would destroy roughly 55 million freelance jobs just to please the transit workers' union, eh?  But think about it: The Dem leadership doesn't give a damn about Americans losing jobs.  That message comes thru clearly in every action they take to make it harder for American businesses to stay in business.

Federal plans to wipe out all freelance jobs to enrich unions--and Dem pols--virtually duplicate California’s catastrophic AB5. That tyrannical law would have thrown countless Californians out of work, but generated so much anger among voters that voters passed a state proposition (Proposition 22) repealing the worst parts before the law was slated to take effect.  But the totalitarians comprising the Biden*Harris regime have no intention of letting that happen to their bill.

And note that there is NO mechanism by which Americans can vote to block a federal law.  California voters could block their totalitarian dictators.  But Americans can't block congress and the Dem regime.

Higher unemployment--cunningly re-named "record low unemployment" by the Mainstream Media-- actually benefits Dem pols, because people without jobs are totally dependent on the government, thus far more likely to vote Democrat.

Win-win for the clever Dems, eh comrade?

Finally, from the socialist news agency Reuters:

Biden’s labor secretary, Marty Walsh, fully supports making it illegal for gig workers to work as independent contractors--although he carefully avoids saying that.  Instead he says he and Team Biden*Harris support something far less totalitarian: merely "re-classifying gig workers as employees."

Ah, yes, that *does* sound so much less harsh, eh citizen?

It may be relevant that Walsh is a former union member and wants to "deliver a win for the country's organized labor movement," according to Reuters.

Shares of Uber fell as much as 8 percent while Lyft dived as much as 12 percent after Walsh's speech. Doordash fell nearly 9 percent.

As many as 55 million people in the United States were gig workers - or 34% of the workforce - in 2017, according to the International Labor Organization, and the total was projected to rise to 43% in 2020.

The Reuters propaganda piece says "Walsh's views on the issue could usher in new rulings from the department, which sets legal guidelines for how employers treat workers.*

Ah, "legal guidelines," ya say?  Are those, like, um...rules?  Rules which, if a company doesn't obey 'em to the letter, can result in fines of hundreds of millions of dollars?  *Those* kinds of "guidelines"?

Walsh said the Department will have "conversations with companies that employ gig labor" in the coming months to make sure workers have access to consistent wages, sick time, health care and "all of the things that an average employee in America can access."

By definition, gigs are short-term jobs, so how can a gig worker "have access to consistent wages" and still be a short-term worker?  Yeah, well, don't ask, citizen. Reuters says Walsh also spoke about the risks that result from not having gig companies paying unemployment insurance for such workers - a scenario that has played out during the pandemic, leaving the U.S. government to foot the bill.

But again, how could a gig worker logically apply for unemployment insurance, since they're not employees, eh?  Wait, did Walsh just give the game away yet again?  Sure--he and the Biden lesbian communists want to force everyone to be an employee of some company.  And if you have a gig job, you won't be able to any longer.

Is this one-party-rule wonderful or what?

I also note that labor secretary Walsh bitches about what a horrible burden gig workers are to the feral gruberment because they don't have unemployment insurance (but see above; they couldn't claim it anyway) or company-paid health insurance, yet the regime simply ignores 150,000 illegal aliens entering the U.S. every MONTH, with neither of those "company-paid" benefit.  Hmmmm....almost like there are two different standards.  So let's make it illegal for 50-million Americans to do gig jobs, while allowing another million illegals in who don't have the things Walsh is bitching about gig workers not having.  Wow.

Source.

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