Dreamers turn to social media to test out eccentric moneymaking schemes
BY JOE PINSKER
The WSJ has just discovered much of what has driven many Amazon and other internet marketplace sellers.
Might it have started with that book: “The 4-Hour Work Week,”
https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357
I read the original version that was published several years ago, but the author’s business model is difficult to replicate. Most people are not tempermentally suited to being entrepeneurs,
Living without the safety of employer provided health insurance is easier than it used to be, but by no means easy.
If you don’t make too much money, and can qualify for an Obamacare subsidy you do not need employer provided health insurance.
One of the reasons that the increased Obamacare subsidies during Covid were so important to so many was they made health insurance through Obamacare cheaper than many employer plans. Both the workers and the employers liked that situation.
Mod note: updated title and reformatted OP to comply with News for Ecomm Sellers category standards.
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Indeed, lol. From the link:
That may have been true during some time of the Affordable Care Act, but that no longer exist. The subsidies were not extended and so the ACA is now on it’s last legs.
When the ACA came out in 2014, it provided a way for my wife and I to have affordable health care … it wasn’t free but affordable.
And we were very thankful for it’s existence.
So happy for the lint-roller guy- maybe he can get by w/ working a few hours a week. Must be FBA, or have hired an entity to do his packaging/shipping.
Since surgery in April, we have reapportioned many of my duties so husband/daughter are doing everything but listing which one refuses to do and the other stares moodily into the distance, without responding when I incautiously bring up the subject. Dyslexics both, neither have my ability to do rote tasks thousands of times…
I still work 3-6 hours daily. Occasionally take a day off during the week and most Sundays-our so-called “passive” income is at least flexible but still labor-intensive.
Nothing much “passive” about scouting/isting books-or dealing w/ human customers.
It was only true with the increased subsidies during Covid, and the number of individuals who have cancelled their coverage under ACA is significant, and there is no reliable data as to whether they are covered by other insurance, or whether they were the fraudulent policies which existed because the insured were not paying anything.
The subsidies are at the pre-Covid levels today, and if the ACA is on its last legs, which I doubt, it would have to be for other reasons.
Among my personal acquaintances, the ACA exchange policies were more expensive than the polices they had before ACA, but none of my acquaintances had pre-existing conditions which needed coverage, and some of them were only carrying catastrophic medical insurance, which worked well for them because they were statistically less likely to need health care unless disaster struck them.
That depends greatly from state to state; the states that wanted to take a stand against a president (black or Dem-o-crat, take your choice) doing something to help people who needed help tend to have very high prices; the states that signed up to work with the program have prices that actually tend to help people. Of course, some states have much higher or lower prices in general, so the ACA may have a different comparison from the start.
A friend of mine (single) in a state that did not want to participate was looking at rates about triple what we paid for two people (which is slightly lower than I was paying for insurance in my last job; although considerably higher than my previous job, which had GREAT insurance).
Hopefully ACA is not on it’s “last legs”. Without it, I could no longer afford to be self-employed, and would have to take a job which paid less but gave insurance, such as checking carts at Costco.
The ACA has been a blessing to many self-employed entrepreneurs, who have all put varying amounts of non-passive work into their businesses.
As far as the article goes, or for that matter, the reality of self-employed work schedules, I personally don’t think it is lazy or entitled to want to streamline your business for the lifestyle you prefer.
One of my favorite books has always been Cheaper By the Dozen, which is the autobiographical story-telling by some of the children of the US’s earliest “efficieny experts”. One thing that sticks with me was their dad’s advice for streamlining any task or activity, which was to find the “laziest” person doing the job and study them. Dr Gilbreth’s point was not to be lazy, but to find the least amount of critical movements/actions that still resulted in the desired (and safe) completed work–what we call today “optimization”.
These business owners have optimized their workflows to meet their income and/or scheduling goals in the most efficient manners. I honestly envy them. 
This is not correct. The enhanced subsidies that were added during covid were not extended, meaning that the subsidies are lower and subject to (rather draconian) income caps, but the subsidies from the original law still exist.
I read ,“Cheaper by the Dozen,” many years ago, just taking in the faily life part of it, and not the parts of interest to MBAs, which I had probably not had any knowledge of at that point in my life. Might need to re-read–thanks for the recommendation.
I had high hopes that being able to have decent health insurance that did not require working for a large employer might have inspired entrepeneurship in the US, but have not been impressed so far.
Perhaps people who have benefited and started businesses need more and better PR.
Many older people who were laid off in their 50s and 60s and not able to find other corporate jobs with health insurance have benefited from the ACA in the months and years before they were able to qualify for Medicare.
The ACA is not perfect, but has benefited many people since it was enacted in 2014.
I lived in Massachusetts when Obamacare passed. We had outrageous health insurance costs due to an ever increasing number of mandated coverages.
I knew very few people who qualified for the subsidies but many small business owners who were hurting before the ACA passed. We were paying $10k/year for coverage through a business owner’s association’s group plan. And more mandates would be added every year, raising the rate.
The people I knew did not see any decrease with the ACA’s passage and many had larger deductables under the ACA plans. ACA meant a big increase in our deductible or higher cost.
And Massachusetts was as cooperative with the president on all issues as any state.
We kept our plan and planned for our move out of Massachusetts and our eligibility for Medicare.
It is only the past 13 years that I have lived in a state which is not blue.
To be fair, PPACA was actually enacted in 2010, not 2014.
Could’ve used those extra four years worth of cushion before the Fedz “Grubered” us, & our matching costs ballooned obscenely, but such was not to be.
Well, let’s be honest; Massachusetts is almost as bad as California in creating their own set of problems. It almost makes New Jersey look good.
But I gladly admit that I would love it if something better came along; but HMOs tied to working for a big corporation being the only way to get insurance is NOT the way.
HMOs were pioneers in care by doctors working for a salary. The number of doctors who work for a salary who work a normal business week is a majority of doctors, and their reason relates directly to the motivations for the subject of this thread.
It is now possible for doctors to have a life outside of their career, And over 50% of the seats in our medical schools are occupied by women. And there has been scant increase in the number of seats in medical schools over the period that these changes have occurred,
Healthcare should not be tied to employment, period. It should not be that if we get too sick to work, we lose our healthcare. My friend said poor people get free healthcare. However, we should not lose all our assets to get free healthcare.
That said, I have been an HMO member forever. I love it, but my mom’s HMO sucked. Not all HMOs are the same.
I read ,“Cheaper by the Dozen,” many years ago, just taking in the family life part of it, and not the parts of interest to MBAs, which I had probably not had any knowledge of at that point in my life. Might need to re-read–thanks for the recommendation!