Neither social security nor 401Ks are, in that you can often keep and almost always rollover (to a personal) 401K when departing.
Pensions were, but as I understand it, those basically don’t exist anymore.
We don’t want to remove the ability for a true contractor to work on spec, or for non-cash remuneration, when they can negotiate with a human counterparty. But if you’re being given orders by an inhuman system, you deserve at least some of the protections employees receive against inhumane employers.
Unfortunately, this wipes out e.g. U.S. based Mechanical Turkers, some of whom have health or other restrictions preventing them from getting minimum wage jobs. Haven’t figured out a solve for that yet. But hopefully the actual drafters of legislation would!
(Also, this really makes me want an IDE to crowdsource lawmaking, linting to make the legalese exact, with verified lawyers reviewing PRs. Give the crowd the same ability that lobbyists have to spoon-feed legislation to lawmakers.)
Why? If there were better options out there then Lyft wouldn't have any drivers. Lyft has over one million drivers, which means that for those people there weren't any better opportunities. Lyft isn't profitable even at that lower level without benefits or the extra protections you're arguing for, but still over a million people choose to drive for them. Why take away the best opportunity those people have? Why not put the blame on literally every other company out there, because they all failed these Lyft drivers, leaving Lyft as their best work opportunity.
"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prisons..."
"And the Union workhouses." demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir..."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Why is it a given that its going to be more common or shall I say allowed to become more common.
Crack would be more common if we didn't keep locking up dealers.
But it would relieve so many problems, from homelesness to our overly litigious society, that I'd vote for it with both hands.
There is nothing about the American health care system that has anything to do with the free market.
Before the ACA, if you had any type of pre-existing condition, you could not buy health insurance at any price.
I guess the roots of this "American" morale is those times when you arrive to the New World, you disembark the ship, and nobody owes you anything. You don't owe anyone anything either. If you don't like it, don't board the ship.
The times have changed. The morale, as it often happens, lags behind.