It’s a Freelance Life

The days of working for one company for 40 years with raises and promotions and then retiring with a gold watch and a pension are gone for good. Even job-hopping is difficult when there are few jobs. Today more and more people are temps or freelancers. Freelancing means hustling up your own jobs one by one, hoping you’ll be paid, never knowing when the next dollar is coming in. It also means that tax time is a nightmare (15.3% to social security? In one lump sum?), health care is a luxury, and everyone thinks you are unemployed. Freelancers never have any “free time,” even if they are not working, because that time must be used to line up the next project.

Garlic Jackson Comedy put together a little song about freelancing, to the tune of “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from the musical Annie. (via Buzzfeed)