Blogosaurus Stampede

Recent stories in the media are posing the question, are temp workers the new breed of American employee? Temp employees have been around forever (Ok, for centuries, although we called them part-timers before), but in recent years, even as unemployment stats go up, so do the number of temporary, or “contract” workers.

The appeal, so it is pitched, is temp employment gives greater flexibility to workers who want to be able to take time off more easily. Plus, they get to sample various work environments without having to commit to it like it’s a marriage. They’re free and they have freedom and can fly free… however, they often are doing it free of insurance and other benefits, sick days, paid vacations, etc. Oh, but they have freedom.

The attraction for employers is the available workers when they are needed, but for no more than that. You can imagine thew grunt filing and data entry that makes up much of temp work. But even with paying a fee to the Temp Agency, it still works out cheaper for the company.

Today, President Obama announced he had made a deal with Republicans over tax-cuts and Unemployment extensions to the other 99% of America. This deal also comes with tax breaks for businesses… which are mostly owned by that wealthy 1%. Nice for them… good politics if, you know, you can afford it. I suppose we’re lucky President Obama didn’t sell them the whole farm for the option to buy some bridge property in Brooklyn, NY.

Now many defenders of the President say that he made the deals in order to buy millions of out-of-work, or under-employed, Americans a critical extension of unemployment checks. All he had to do was extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest, which were due to run out