I’m back, one more time, to do my part in protecting the rights of nearly 70 million Americans to work for a living, outside of the traditional employer/employee relationship. Those rights, as you may have heard, are in serious jeopardy, thanks to a looming bill in Congress called The PRO Act, which would, if passed, force millions of freelancers to become employees, and thereby completely destroy their ability to assume a level of risk that allows them to set their own schedules, plan for their own retirement, arrange for their own healthcare, and make a lot of other decisions most often associated with being a grown-up.
My guest today is Akash Chougule, and he’s the VP of Government Affairs at Americans for Prosperity. In other words, Akash has devoted his life to confronting a long list of public policy decisions that have made it exponentially more difficult for a lot of hard working Americans to prosper. The PRO Act is currently in his crosshairs, and I for one, hope his aim is true. By no means is our conversation limited to this issue – Akash talks eloquently about a number a number of really bad regulations currently in place, that – combined with inflation – are crippling the very foundation upon which our republic was founded: individuality, and the right to try. It’s a great conversation, and the whole thing is here.
Mike
PS. The inevitable push back on this post will come from unions, who benefit enormously from the passage of this bill. To be as clear as I can, I have no objection to unions, and I fully support the rights of workers to organize. What I oppose, are cookie-cutter solutions with unintended consequences. The freelance community should not pay the price for a bill like this.
Mike’s Facebook Page