Remembering the self-employed lower to middle incomers

When American Express advertises for the small business owner on the week-end after Thanksgiving, It’s a reminder to visit their shops and restaurants to keep their business alive, but are we forgetful of the mobile self-employed who have food trucks, who service for Sears, the landscapers, the nannys and babysitters and those who contract with personal home service? What about the writers, the home workers who contract with businesses, the caterers, the housecleaners, the self-employed electricians, mechanics, and temporary construction workers, business consultants, bookkeepers, and accountants.
A broader class of independent contractors who the general public depends on for service, sometimes to help our loved ones, may presently have no health insurance or are currently paying high premiums, unless they are on their spouses’ plan. They have no financial benefits unless they create their own, and no long term contracts and promises of future employment.
Perhaps the government originally considered this group of workers getting away with receiving cash for payments and yielding too low of expenses trail. So a tax form in their namesake can be completed every year regardless of whether there is a surplus or loss. Expenses reported included the use of their personal homes, cars or small rentals. This is in lieu of perhaps earning a larger income using full size businesses with mortgages or higher rent. However, earnings of as low as $400 per year still have to be reported. That’s why they are allowed to pay taxes four times a year, in case their taxes are too high to pay in April.
They are less likely to employ full time workers with benefits, so they can’t contribute much to the rate of the full time unemployed. Instead, they work with family members, friends, or hire part-time workers, seasonal or temporary workers.
Over 20 years ago, a food service trucker sold me the best tea I had tasted in my life. People stood in line well after lunch hour for it. I wanted to know the secret, to which he responded “a variety of different herbs”, grinning about his success. At 2:00 pm, he was off, maybe to his second job to support the love of his first one.