#giggers #SelfEmployed #SoloPractitioners #NonEmployerEstablishments
South Florida is loaded with “giggers.”
Atlanta, Dallas, Washington and Boston have also seen a surge.
What are “giggers?” They are one-person shops or, in bureaucratic parlance, “non-employer establishments.”
“Between 1997 and 2015, the number of non-employer establishments – that is, self-employed, freelance workers and independent contractors that aren’t often counted in traditional government measures of job growth – in the Miami area rose 142 percent,” writes Nancy Dahlberg in an article for the Miami Herald. The article was also published Dec. 25, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
That growth is more than twice the national average of 58.6 percent, Dahlberg writes. The other metro areas showing growth behind Miami include Atlanta (126 percent), Dallas (95 percent), Washington, D.C. (78 percent) and Boston (31 percent), according to the article.
This trend shows that people with imagination and a marketable skill who want to work, but don’t want to be employed or are having trouble finding a traditional W-2 job, are using their skill and imagination to help others, while earning money.
The article also quotes a 2016 McKinsey Global Institute report that found about 27 percent of working-age people in the U.S. and Europe engage at least partially in independent work. It also quotes a 2016 study by the Minneapolis Fed that found the engagement at 37 percent in the U.S. alone, and government estimates show that rate could rise to 40 percent by 2020.
The 2008 recession has had lots of effects on lots of people. Some chose to continue to look for new jobs, with varied success. One should consider himself or herself incredibly fortunate if he or she had lost a good job, but subsequently found a better one. For many, if they have found new work at all, it pays less than they were making before. Therefore, a lifestyle adjustment became necessary.
But suppose you have some imagination, but don’t have a really marketable skill that you can peddle on your own? Or, what if the skills that you have are difficult, if not impossible, to ply in an independent setting?
Fortunately, there are many ways out there that you can earn a potentially significant income – perhaps even more than you’d ever earned before – without having a W-2 job or any specific skill or background. To check out one of the best, message me.
Most of us dream of working until a certain age, then perhaps concentrating on a favorite hobby or hobbies to occupy our time after working. For some, retirement came before they wanted, or were ready, and they are using their hobbies or skills as a solo practitioner.
For some, a lifestyle adjustment was required. Many of us dream of the time when we make a lifestyle adjustment only for the better.
We are moving toward a more “you economy,” in which you call your own shots, you solve your own economic problems and you advance your lifestyle.
What if you could do all those things, and help others do the same?
What if the “you economy” were not forced upon you by necessity, but presented to you as a gift?
What if that bad situation – a job loss – became the best thing that ever happened to you?
To borrow from John Lennon, you may say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one.
Peter
Tag Archives: The Miami Herald
EDUCATION VS. FAITH
Most think of education as learning something new. That idea was turned on its head in Texas.
The Texas Republican Party has the following plank in its 2012 platform: “We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) [values clarification], critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) [mastery learning], which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
The quoted plank comes from The Miami Herald’s Leonard Pitts, in a July 2012 column. Naturally, Pitts is outraged at the thought of this, but let’s take it line by line, shall we?
Higher Order Thinking: Do Texans not want children thinking too much? When students do something wrong, and a parent asks, “What were you thinking,” should the student respond: “I didn’t want to upset you by violating the Higher Order Thinking ban.”
No critical thinking allowed: Despite numerous reports from employers that they are looking for more people who are good critical thinkers, no matter what job they apply for, the students in Texas should NOT be good at this, the plank seems to state.
Outcome-Based Education: Do Texans want their students to have no outcomes from their education, other than, perhaps, the acquisition of a piece of paper that says they graduated? Do they want them to learn NOTHING in school that might encourage them to learn more, perhaps outside of school, the home, or church?
Now, we are getting to the heart of the matter. Some folks out there believe that whatever your mother, father or preacher tells you is the absolute truth. Anything you see or hear that contradicts that is false. We hear people talk about the need for higher education, and at the same time call the institutions of higher education indoctrination centers, whose goal is to poke a million holes in a student’s core beliefs – or, as Texas calls them, “fixed beliefs.”
IRON-CLAD FIXED BELIEFS
There are all kinds of ways to go with this concept. Should all “fixed beliefs” be iron-clad? Do we want our students to respond, “we can’t do it that way, because we were always taught to do it this way,” when their employer shows them a new way to do something that may be more efficient, improve quality or make their lives easier? Or, God forbid, they discover FOR THEMSELVES a new way of doing things? It may be safe to presume that the platform plank is Christian oriented. How would the proponents of this feel if, say, Muslim students could not learn new ways of thinking, so as not to challenge their fixed beliefs and undermine their parents’ authority?
Some private schools are operated by religious establishments. Some allow students who are not practitioners of that religion. In some schools, those students can opt out of religion classes, and still get a good education in practical, secular disciplines.
The public schools, to which the platform plank refers, should contain no religious orthodoxy in any class. They should teach the students of all religions, or no religion, exactly the same way. Decades ago, students had no problem reconciling what they learned in church, at home or at school, regardless of how the material may have seemed contradictory. If they are having that problem today, it may be because of disputes among parents and various institutions.
The definition of faith is to believe something is true without necessarily having proof. The definition of science is to suspect something may be true, then seek to prove it right or wrong. We may never have proof that things in our faith are true. That’s not to diminish faith. Faith can be a powerful, positive motivator and a good foundation for one’s character. But everyone, students or otherwise, must understand the difference between faith and science. Everyone should have some of both in their lives. Beliefs should not be so powerful that they cannot change under any circumstances. Faith should never be so powerful as to inhibit real learning.
Peter
P.S. No matter your faith, or belief system, if you’d like to be educated on a way to become more prosperous, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.