"The social safety net established as part of the New Deal in the 1930s is missing a huge swath of today's middle class, according to a new report by the Freelancers Union.
"The middle class is no longer made up of those blue-collar factory workers you think of from 50 years ago," said Althea Erickson of the Freelancers Union, a New York nonprofit that provides benefits to members across the country. "The new middle class are software developers, they're bloggers, they're psychologists, they're graphic designers. They're these workers that make up our membership and they really are driving the economy at this point."
According to the Government Accountability Office, there were 42.6 million "contingent workers" -- freelancers -- comprising 31 percent of the total American workforce in 2005.
Eighty-nine percent of the more than 3,000 freelancers who answered the survey said that they faced periods either without enough work or no work at all in 2009. By comparison, in 2006 freelancers found full employment at a 10-percent higher rate than this past year."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/13/new-deal-safety-net-not-c_n_535634.htmlNo one seems to be talking much about this - neither the pundits or the politicians - I know this article pretty accurately describes what's been happening to my wife and I these last two years - just curious to know if any other DUers find themselves in this position - unable to collect unemployment insurance, unable to find enough work to pay the bills, running out of savings, cashed in mutual funds, 401k's, etc - running out of time and hope that the "recovery" is going to happen in time to save us from losing what we've worked our entire lives for...