These are my recent Pin​board​.in links:

• Wel­come to Middle-​​Class Poverty— Does Any­body Know the Way Out? — Sara Horowitz — Busi­ness — The Atlantic

  “The short-​​term way to level the play­ing field is to update the New Deal so it includes and addresses the cur­rent work­force. We need to accept that many peo­ple don’t work full-​​time for an employer and that “jobs” no longer mean just W-​​2 employ­ees, as Dou­glas Rushkoff explained. Richard Cass, a self-​​employed tech­ni­cal and busi­ness con­sul­tant and Free­lancers Union mem­ber, also puts it well: “Gov­ern­ment pro­grams that pro­mote small busi­ness gen­er­ally focus on com­pa­nies with scores of employ­ees and mil­lions of dol­lars in annual rev­enue, which is short-​​sighted.” That has imme­di­ate impli­ca­tions for our eco­nomic and job poli­cies. But to really bring a thriv­ing mid­dle class back to life, we need a dra­matic shift in think­ing, insti­tu­tions, and assump­tions. The role of pol­icy should be to fos­ter newer, more self-​​sustaining sys­tems that fol­low this new mutu­al­ist par­a­digm. In the long run, our insti­tu­tions need to move away from regard­ing the office as the cen­ter of a person’s eco­nomic life, from busi­ness as the provider of ben­e­fits, and from gov­ern­ment as the provider of social sup­ports. The mid­dle class does not have to be built by focus­ing on indi­vid­ual wealth. Instead, we can build sta­ble mar­kets and soci­eties where peo­ple make a liv­ing, com­mu­ni­ties flour­ish, and busi­nesses sur­vive — and not at the expense of oth­ers. It’s not utopian — it’s a neces­sity if we want a suc­cess­ful mid­dle class again.”
  
  cowork­ing free­lancers economic-​​crisis public-​​policy gov­ern­ment rev­o­lu­tion