IF IT WASN’T FOR DISAPPOINTMENTS, I WOULDN’T HAVE ANY APPOINTMENTS: Decent, intermittently insightful Glenn Reynolds column on self-employment and the new-new-new-new-no this time I really mean it! new-economy.

My deal: I started freelancing because I was laid off. Nowadays I do think hard about which tradeoffs I’d be willing to make–how much autonomy would I cash in? The main thing that makes me want a Real Job is absolutely health care. COBRA is a poisonous snake, and self-insurance isn’t much better. I am super in favor of rethinking the employer-based paradigm–this is, IMO, the basic econ/politics domestic problem (as opposed to trade barriers, which are equal parts domestic and foreign problem) today.