Freelancers & Fairness in the Gig Economy 🔨

This ‘fit’ of a pairing is often the catalyst for more equity and fairness in working conditions. Freelancers are no longer at the mercy of references and branding for better pay. They can use AI platforms to set base pays, receive industry standard wages and even stand up to employers treating them unfairly. AI platforms also use automated payments to ensure timely payments to freelancers and keep a check on unethical behaviours. 

Not just this....

Gig workers also benefit from AI’s targeted marketing of their services via social media and other productivity solutions. AI-powered solutions like Grammarly that make smart suggestions have become invaluable in every area of the gig-economy. Several apps are beginning to integrate smart suggestions and personalised nudges that tell the user a feature they might benefit from, or direct them to a resource that might be helpful in the execution of their task. 

Investors finally got a glimpse of how Democrats intend to pay for their $3.5 trillion spending spree. 

It did not go well; the Dow sank almost 300 points. 

Why? Because history has proved that taking money from investors and spenders for national development leads to lower productivity, lesser wage gains and slower growth.

For example, a study by economists David and Christina Romer showed that since World War II a tax increase of 1% of GDP lowered real GDP by about 3% after about two years.

Even President Clinton's 1993 tax hikes actually crimped the next several years' expansion by about 1.5%, according to Treasury analysts. Real hourly wages rose only 2 cents an hour to $7.43 in 1996 from $7.41 in 1992. 

Impact on Small Businesses and Startups

The tax increase damage was, however, partly offset by provisions in the bill that helped small businesses. The bill allowed small businesses to take a tax credit of 5% of their investment in depreciable property and allowed non-corporate filers to exclude 50% of the long-term gain from a sale of a small business stock from their gross income.

But in Biden’s plans there is no help for small businesses, the major engine of U.S. job creation. If small business owners pay taxes as individuals, they will be hit by a steeply higher top tax rate, and a new 3.8% surtax on small business income; they will also lose an existing 20% deduction on qualified business income.

Small business owners will also have a harder time passing their operation along to an heir, given that the death tax exemption will be sliced in half to $5.5 million. Corporations also face higher taxes, which will reduce pay hikes for workers and once again leave our businesses paying the highest taxes in the developed world.

For people who have recently quit their jobs, entrepreneurship is a very popular and appealing next step. That's according to a recent survey by Digital.com. 

Among respondents who had quit their jobs in the last six months, 32% said they had done so to start their own businesses. Of those, 62% said their top motivation was to be their own boss.

Survey takers gave a variety of reasons for leaving their jobs. The most frequently cited reason was to seek better pay and benefits (44%), followed by health (42%) and finding a job they are more passionate about (41%). 

While the massive job turnover has been damaging to companies' retention and hiring efforts, data shows the extra time at home has motivated people to start their own ventures. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that after a dip early in the pandemic, the rate of applications for new businesses from mid-2020 to May 2021 was the highest on record. For aspiring entrepreneurs, the months of Covid-related lockdowns may have been a blessing in disguise.

• Macau bleeding - Shares of casinos in the world's largest gambling hub shed as much as a third of their value, losing about $18 billion, as the government introduced a regulatory overhaul of the casinos. 
   
• Unprecedented economic recovery - The global economy is expected to undergo its fastest recovery in almost five decades this year - per a report by the UN. 
   
• Famous marketing monkey sold - Mailchimp, the email marketing platform which has never raised a single dollar of venture capital, was acquired by Intuit for $12B.
   
• Mysterious internet disappearance - Zhao Wei, one of China’s biggest movie stars, was erased from the internet during a government crackdown on the entertainment industry.
   
• Trudeau's hat trick - Canada's Justin Trudeau won a third term in yesterday's snap elections, although securing only a minority in the House. 
   
• Compulsory Covid Certificate  - Italy becomes the first European country to make vaccine passports mandatory for all workers from mid-October as 73.8% of Italians have been fully vaccinated.  
   
• Playing the lottery? You’re not alone. Lottery sales in Illinois this year surged 22% to more than $3.4 billion, the highest total since the Illinois Lottery began operation in 1975..