Now and Here are not Nowhere: On Self-Employment
Our Minds
“In February, the unemployment rate held at 4.9 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 7.8 million, was unchanged.” What happens in our minds when we read statistics like these? Does the foreshadowed distress caused by high and continued joblessness move further than our individual compass?
They, You and I
If human beings are social beings, doesn’t pervasive unemployment smashes our shared community spirit? After all, most of us – they, you and I - are part of a working class that fluctuates from job to job in order to break even.
We Begin
But what about if - in the hub of all of this - we begin to think about constructing a space of relative autonomy?
We Build
What about if - to deconstruct this reality - we build or strengthen our sense of purpose?
We Become
What if out of the dearth of official jobs we become self-employed?
Himself or Herself
Self-employed? Yes, self-employment: “a situation in which an individual works for himself or herself instead of working for an employer that pays a salary or a wage.” According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), nearly 15 million workers are identified as self-employed - about 10 percent of the overall workforce:
“The self-employed, 14.6 million in all, represent 10% of the nation’s 146 million workers, and they in turn provide jobs for 29.4 million other workers.”
History Shows Us How
No wonder history shows us how “economic systems that guarantee the fruits of labor to the people who produce such labor are generally shown to be more productive and create more wealth than economic systems in which the value of labor does not accrue to the person doing the labor.”
Now and Here
© 2016 Aydasara Ortega Torres