>When workers are unbundled from institutions, they lose access to many of the services and benefits that traditional employment conferred: income smoothing wit

>When workers are unbundled from institutions, they lose access to many of the services and benefits that traditional employment conferred: income smoothing with automated tax withholding (i.e. a paycheck), healthcare, employer-sponsored retirement plans In the U.S., self-employed workers who make a profit have the same access to retirement plans (401k, SEP-IRA) as employees, and also have the same ability to pay for health insurance with pre-tax dollars as employees. In fact, self-employed people can contribute far higher amounts to tax-deferred retirment plans than employees in most cases.