While I take advantage of that flexibility you cite, after many years of seeing the inside of many clients, I have reluctantly concluded that state of employmen

While I take advantage of that flexibility you cite, after many years of seeing the inside of many clients, I have reluctantly concluded that state of employment is not a viable policy prescription for the American general population in the near future. To be really secure as a freelancer over the long-term (multiple decades), you ideally should have three years’ living expenses set aside. That lets you ride out big dips like the 2000 tech recession or 2008 Great Recession and still have enough left over to strategically pick your projects and rebuild your reserves at the same time. From where we sit today, it is a very long road to getting most of the population saving even 6-12 months living expenses. To get there, we need to take many intermediate baby steps. Perhaps special tax treatment for savings accounts belonging to taxpayers below a certain income level, and the account balance meets some kind of latency metrics, or outright grants for hitting metrics in lieu of EITC.