Nobody wants to willingly insure some random Uber driver. Would you? Or would you start demanding references, background checks, the backing of a larger entity?

The employee would need commercial insurance, which is a lot more expensive.

At that point, the employee has the disadvantages of being an employee, and the disadvantages of being a contractor, but the advantages of neither.

Insurance-specific link http://newsroom.uber.com/2015/01/certificates-of-insurance-u...

> you can work whenever you want including never.

A lot of regular employments have this, too. Even employees in some government agencies in Germany can just decide to go to work 3 hours later, or not at all that day.

This is not something that is specific to contractual work.

User's insurance isn't particularly great. For one, they make no mention of requiring commercial vehicle insurance (https://www.uber.com/driver-jobs) and say that drivers only need personal vehicle insurance. They have contingent liability injury insurance with a total available of $100K. They talk of having commercial insurance during trips, but it is only third party liability and UI/UM. If you're a passenger in an Uber accident and insurers decline to cover when they become aware the vehicle was driven commercially, you're out of luck.

You're standing on the edge of a cliff. Be careful not to fall into the Sar Chasm...

free market controlled by the government sponsored by big business...