On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 21:30:10 -0700 (PDT), Udhay Shankar N wrote: > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/04/20/stories/2006042000341000.htm > Are we killing the self-employed? > R. VAIDYANATHAN > ... > Our economy is not that of wage earners and shareholders. A significant > portion of the economy consists of the self-employed who are both > wage-earners and shareowners. The share of the proprietorship and > partnership forms of organisations in the national income is 35 per > cent, that of corporates around 15 per cent, of government around 25 > per cent, and agriculture around 25 per cent. Combine agriculture and > the self-employed in industry and service sectors, nearly 60 per cent > of the national income is generated by the self-employed and does not > fall in the paradigm of either capitalism or socialism.
That's fascinating. Does that mean India is the prototype for the disintermediated free-agent economy of the future so beloved of the microcorporation, cypherpunk, and Extropian crowds? What are the biggest problems for the self-employed sector in India today? In Ecuador and Perú it seems that much of the countries are also self-employed, but much of the employment is very-low-value work --- e.g. retail sales. I don't object to the existence of retail, but I think that people working in that sector generally have very limited opportunities for adding value, and their abilities could generally be applied better elsewhere. Likewise for transport (railway or non), hotels, restaurants, and so on. On the other hand, self-employment is equally possible for people in the following jobs: - doctor - lawyer - machinist - engineer - construction worker (the article points out that many of India's self-employed do this) - manufacturing worker - technical salvage (like Don Lancaster) - computer programmer - teacher - writer Are there large obstacles to such people becoming self-employed in India today? It seems to me that the obstacles for some of them are becoming larger in the US; for example, teachers are mostly employees due to students' desire for certifications and certifiers' desire for control, and doctors are becoming more employees due to insurance companies' desire for control.
