> Contractors still have employers, you know.

This is true for vendors, but direct 1099 contractors are self employed.

I would argue that they still have an employer, themselves, who is responsible for providing that health insurance.

Actually, your point reminded me that a great many employees don't receive health insurance through their employer. Those people are disproportionately low wage workers. Before Obamacare, they had no option but the very expensive individual health insurance market.

That's nonsense.

In your terms then, just let everybody be self-employed and contract them, rather than employ them. That's the same result I want, that people are responsible for themselves and making a contract with somebody to do some work for you doesn't come with any additional baggage. Just plain money for work.

That would be doable if the U.S. had a robust social safety net for all these contract workers, namely health insurance for those in between jobs. Right now relying on employers for insurance has been a terrible hassle.

I'd actually be okay with that if there was a robust social safety net, yeah.