My friend has a facebook profile photo that’s a very nice headshot. I’m one of the few people who uses Windows Phone and my mobile OS will update my contact list with photos from social networks. (This post is written circa mid-2015 and windows phone is still a thing although who can say for how long).
This is both a fun feature – you get to see what people are wanting to project through their photos – and annoying – you have to keep up with what photo represents which person if someone changes their photo often. Then one day I notice she’s shaded her photo into the colors of the rainbow to support the recent supreme court decision on same-sex marriages.
As I’ve stated in the past This isn’t a political blog.. but there is always that intersection where our legal structure as a society intersects with our culture. So I reflected on the decision.. but not it’s implication on our culture.. but why it has such of a big implication.. and this is what I came up with:
The primary reason there is huge political issues with volatile subjects such as same sex marriages is the fact that the government is involved. The government is involved because they make regulations related to taxes, insurance, etc.. the point is if the government wasn’t involved.. -in a fantasy world where people’s choices in their interpersonal relationships were personal and didn’t have an effect on anyone else- then we would have allot less engagement or consideration of people’s personal preferences.
The same concept applies to defining employers and sub contractors. If the government wasn’t involved in defining things like benefits and especially if the government wasn’t engaged in tax withholding, then we would move more quickly towards a world where the concept of a regular job doesn’t exist anymore. This is both a boon and a problem for the PIC.
I haven’t done the research yet, but I think withholding is a major reason why the government isn’t flexible in how it addresses the needs of the Professional Individual Contributors.. The system works well for what the government wants (taxes) even if it doesn’t work well anymore for what the PIC’s experience day to day.
Society is very complex, our infrastructure is complex, this complexity is the reason why something as simple as who you choose to spend your life with becomes a supreme court decision. It’s also the reason why working in today’s world is not simply a matter of work and get paid.
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