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Comment by pmarreck | Hacker News Reader

Wherever there is difficulty, there is also opportunity.

I think the major thing stopping people from just going their own way is healthcare coverage. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

I wonder if I can hack a business model that somehow provides healthcare but also gathers together sourced projects, and freelancers to bid on building them, while also getting healthcare. (And if you opt out of healthcare, you can take the difference. Maybe.) It may not result in 100% employment, but it could potentially provide a source of income while looking for something more fulltime. And I would help coordinate, while also vetting people.

Also, not sure if related to the difficulty in tech, but it might depend on your ethnicity, and not in the way you might think: https://fox11online.com/news/nation-world/major-us-companies...

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I’m somewhat dubious that healthcare is the biggest impediment to doing a startup today, because of the Affordable Care Act. It certainly seems to have helped supercharge the “FIRE” (financial independence, retire early) movement—another set of working-age people who need healthcare without employment.

I think a lot of engineers just want to engineer. Leading a startup quickly becomes mostly business stuff like finance, marketing, sales, hiring, etc. You need a business model, not just tech know-how. Starting your own business is definitely not the same job as staff engineer at an established business. It’s not for everyone.

> ...I think the major thing stopping people from just going their own way is healthcare coverage...

i agree. Tying healthcare to employment limits things in several ways. What if, instead of starting my own business, i wanted to work 2 different part time jobs for 2 different employers? Maybe 1 of them is a rather low-paying job at a non-profit, and another is some tech-related job...well, even if enough of my poay is covered between both jobs, what would i do about healthcare? Yes, i know about the Affordable Care Act, but its been watered down by the powers that be who don't care about proper healthcare for everyone, etc. I think if the ACA in its original form were to have been launched, maybe it would have set us on a better trajectory - at least for more universal coverage which isn't tied to employment...then, at that point, Americans can choose their own adventure from an employment perspective (assuming they have the proper skills for whichever career adventure they undertook) - either work for someone else (or work for several different bosses), or work for themselves.

Health insurance isn't /that/ big of an issue due to Obamacare and similar state programs. Yes, could have to pay almost $1k/mo to get insurance, but it's just one more expense along with rent, food, etc. It is more expensive than getting healthcare via an employer due to tax breaks, group negotiations, etc, it shouldn't stop people from going solo if they just treat it as another expense.

False - at least if you want to say this applies to 100% of states. In NY state, the marketplace (ACA) plans are HMO's, and with small networks. High deductibles.

Not that great. And it's not that cheap.

You're better off working somewhere, quitting, using the COBRA (1200-2k+ for fam), when it runs out getting another job, quitting, rinse repeat.

I don't think healthcare alone is stopping people from going on their own. What could a developer do on their own? Start a startup? Extremely hard and risky. Freelancing? Requires marketing and lots of other stuff most of us suck at. And the freelancing market isn't that much better now either.

I've been taking some time off to learn, travel and work on my own projects. Going in I was very worried about healthcare. It turned out cheaper than expected. What worried me more is that I want able to get disability insurance at all.

There is some truth to healthcare coverage, but 26 and under are covered by their parents. They’re the hard to fill junior roles anyway.

IMO, people want way too much fucking money.

Want and need way too much money. Cost of living is wild everywhere and cost of a lifestyle we used to consider "standard" (family, home ownership, kids can go to college, annual vacation, usually on one salary) is out of reach for most now.

Looking at the numbers for the decline in spending power over time is sobering.

Why does everyone assume young people's parents have healthcare coverage?

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