Slashdot Mirror
The Rise Of The Contract Workforce (npr.org)
An anonymous reader shares a report: A new NPR/Marist poll finds that 1 in 5 jobs in America is held by a worker under contract. Within a decade, contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce. Workers across all industries and at all professional levels will be touched by the movement toward independent work -- one without the constraints, or benefits, of full-time employment. Policymakers are just starting to talk about the implications.
[...] It's not just business driving the trend. Surveys show a large majority of freelancers are free agents by choice. John Vensel is a contract attorney at Orrick who grew up a few miles from Wheeling, on the other side of the Pennsylvania state line. In his 20s, he was a freelance paralegal by day and a gig musician by night. "I actually wanted to be a rock star," he says. But these days there are no edgy vestiges of a former rocker, only a 47-year-old family man cooing over cellphone photos of his children, Grace and Gabe. In the two decades in between, Vensel worked full-time corporate jobs. But he was laid off in 2010, on the eve of his graduation from his night-school law program. He graduated with huge piles of debt, into one of the worst job markets. For a time, Vensel commuted three hours round-trip to a full-time job in Pittsburgh. But more recently, he quit and took up contracting to stay near home in Wheeling.
[...] It's not just business driving the trend. Surveys show a large majority of freelancers are free agents by choice. John Vensel is a contract attorney at Orrick who grew up a few miles from Wheeling, on the other side of the Pennsylvania state line. In his 20s, he was a freelance paralegal by day and a gig musician by night. "I actually wanted to be a rock star," he says. But these days there are no edgy vestiges of a former rocker, only a 47-year-old family man cooing over cellphone photos of his children, Grace and Gabe. In the two decades in between, Vensel worked full-time corporate jobs. But he was laid off in 2010, on the eve of his graduation from his night-school law program. He graduated with huge piles of debt, into one of the worst job markets. For a time, Vensel commuted three hours round-trip to a full-time job in Pittsburgh. But more recently, he quit and took up contracting to stay near home in Wheeling.
I've worked hard, lived below my means, and saved ferociously for two decades now and I'm getting ready to retire with a 7 digit investment portfolio in a year or two before I'm 50. I feel sorry for the young people just entering the workforce, what a different scenario they will be facing with the Republican destruction of the social contract and delivering all power to corporate America. It's a much more lopsided equation than it used to be. As my late dad used to say, BOHICA. Bend Over Here It Comes Again.
For the last 15 years, I have been contract with short "real jobs" in the middle. But after 6 months to a year I have fixed the issues and it is maintenance. I do not like it, and they do not like paying my salary for it, so on to the next. Feeds my ADD. :)
Contract workers is effectively "try before you buy" on an employee. It's getting increasingly difficult to fire poor performing employees. Contract is a good bet for employers.
"Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
Working for any sort of staffing company (like Aerotech or Kelly Services) is literally being a whore. They're charging 3-4-5 times what they're paying you, and they don't give a rats ass about you, they only care about getting paid. Worse, you're expendable. It's easier to fire you and get someone else if you complain or try to get more pay. I hate it, and I'll be so glad to escape it.
The situation sucks. Not only in the present but it was make the future suck as well because everyone caught in it are going to feel a crunch come retirement, if they ever do get to retire. There's no guarantees with the mighty 401(k) and IRA that are tied to market forces which we have no command or control over.
There are structural problems with our society that allow this to happen. It's not only coded in our employment laws but also in the anti-union bent of corporate profit imperatives. We want people to take responsibility for their own success but remove every single tool that might be used for that through black-letter law or through making it so expensive in seeking redress of wrongs it become untenable, even in principle, to see it done. We allow for unilateral NDAs to be upheld. We allow for so much to be hidden away that even if I were to invest the time (as if I had the time to invest) looking into a potential employer, I wouldn't find be able to find the problems they have.
So what do you want us to talk about here? We know about it. We work as well as we can within it. There's public outcry but no political will to do anything. This is the endpoint of 40 years of corporate political influence. What's there to be surprised about it?
Oh, the horrors!
Sounds like a typical commute into London, rather than some extreme bad case.
One of the reasons that I have worked for myself for all but ~6 weeks out of the last ~30Y is to have a bit more control over commuting...
Rgds
Damon
http://m.earth.org.uk/
In the future, all employees will be treated like front-line grunts; easily interchangeable and expendable.
Of course, design/engineering/programming/security work is infinitely more complex, but Greed doesn't give a shit about things like continuity, and will assume every employee is easily replaced.
Quality will become a shadow of its former self. Welcome to the Gig Economy. Enjoy the shitshow.
Nor tends to cherry pick one example of some story they present and extrapolate it to a macro or semi macro level. Iâ(TM)ve never liked that. Talking about broad statistics demographics and trends is very hard to keep in focus and understand when you center the story around one anticdote. Yes that individual is in a less than great situation but this person has a law degree and license. Iâ(TM)m sure they could find work closer if they wanted it. There we other trade offs.
Everything in life is a set of trade offs and a 2 minute hit on npr canâ(TM)t encapsulate that.
First job I had out of school was a lab where nearly everyone was "permanent contractors", where they were just using it as a way to avoid paying benefits. Interviewed another place where the lab had a 3 month opening because they had a 'permanent contractor' they really liked but couldn't keep her year round (unspoken: because then she'd have cause to sue for benefits, as I understand things). I don't know if it is still that bad but it sure led to high turnover and low morale at those places.
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Who woulda thought that if you impose multiple and ever-increasing burdens on employers, that they'll start to hire fewer people as employees?
I'm left-leaning in a hell of a lot of ways but no one should have supported these horrible centrist compromises that both the Democrats and the Republicans (moreso the Ds in recent years), have been led into in these past few years. Worker's comp, heath insurance, minimum wage, and all other things that society needs to function better, so its work force can remain kinda healthy and agile and productive, should be provided by... SOCIETY. By the government. Directly. (In the case of minimum wage, I'd be in favor of reverse income tax subsidy approach, not a universal basic income.) Not by employers. Asking employers to pay for it directly is the most anti-capitalistic 'compromise' imaginable, partially due to inefficiencies but mostly because fails to ensure or preserve the welfare of workers. Because employers will always be trying to figure out ways that they can dodge it, starting with the obvious solution of hiring fewer employees. If it's not contractors, it'll be outsourcing. Or robots. Or spinning off and moving entire sections overseas where there are shit labor laws. It'll always be something.
None of this is a capitalist-socialist compromise, none of it is centrist, none of it is moderate. In practice, it is the worst of capitalism wedded to the worst of government meddling and barrier-imposing. If you consider yourself a leftist and you support stuff like huge minimum wage hikes and forcing employers to buy insurance for employees please, for fuck's sake... just stop it.
It is literally the worst of both worlds.
The dirty little secret of this trend is that it's happening because the employers increasingly getting away with policies that in past times would have been called mistreatment of their workforce. The American workforce has increasingly moved out of the blue collar industries that had fought long and hard for Regulatory and Union protections, to the comparatively unregulated and unprotected world of white collar drudgery. Things like Union protections and Pension Programs are a things of the past, and loyalty (in either direction) has been entirely removed from the equation.
The vast majority of people would not cast off the security of a large organization and take on all the risk of going freelance while there are alternative. But increasingly the Companies are asking for more and more from their employees and giving less and less in return, to the point where the Hassle&Restriction of a large organization out weights diminishing expectation of Job Security that is the whole point.
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
...if we had a basic floor by some mechanism, where someone couldn't fall below, leading to a semi-permanent drain on society, and a society that was unwilling to have people die for their own benefit.
You know, something closer to the biblical ideal espoused in the 'new testament' part of the most consistently referenced book in this nation, but with the freedoms espoused in the other largely revered document, our constitution.
A 'basic income' system would work, but some mix of unions/safety net if that wasn't possible could at least mitigate those falling through the cracks.
Education also helps - but everyone can be suckered, or just have the bad luck to be taken advantage of for too long. Even the smartest folks can live most of their lives in abject circumstances for the sake of loved ones, or ideals where that intelligence doesn't help them.
A more ideal case would be if everyone had some base line, could be sure that everyone they loved would at least survive in some level of comfort, and were free to help, not in the confines of a arbitrary-hour work week, but could use tools to be available whenever made sense, without fear of becoming bankrupt later in life for pursuing whatever they felt helped others the most.
Money should still matter - what folks are willing to reward more or less can still matter... but it shouldn't be increasingly the ONLY thing that matters, above life, death, and everything else.
Shared social value should matter for SOMETHING, shouldn't it?
Ryan Fenton
Contract people allows companies to expand and contract as their business demands. Much easier to cancel contracts, then fire employee's. Besides the elimination of benefits and other perks, the business is free to control its work force. Not sure its so great for the contractor but then again if you prefer to work in a more freelance way I guess it can work. I just see it more as a way for businesses to cut unwanted costs of labor efficiently and without hassle.
Look contracting works fine for those with special skills and in very in demand and again high skill jobs, some individuals come out ahead even in those instances. However, for vast majority of everyone else, it is a continued wage and benefits fuck that boosts corporate profits while increasing public benefit needs prior to retirement age, allows for increased age discrimination and leaves more workers without retirement planning and assets that they would have had previously.
There's also the outdated work ethic that only serves to fuel the lifestyle of the one-percenters. There's enough wealth in the world to satisfy everyone's needs without everyone "needing" a job. Guaranteed annual income should come sooner, not later.
That's how the place I work is set up. A bunch of old geezers who refuse to retire pull down fat checks and fatter benefits to do nothing since most of them can't figure out how to send an email. Then the millenials who do all the work are capped at 20 hours a week otherwise Obamacare would mandate they get benefits. I like the organization so I stayed way too long hoping some of the dead weight would retire or die, but they just stay there well into senility draining our resources. Luckily the economy is going pretty well lately, so it's time to branch out and find a leaner organization with people who know how to use email and actually have mobile phones.
it sucked. Very inconsistent pay. He'd be on 9 months and off 3. Which is fine if you're in your 20s but not so much when you've got kids to raise. You're always playing catch up. I forget why but you can't get for unemployment.
The other problem was he could never get a raise because his contract agency had established how much he was willing to work for, so even if the job paid more the contract agency just pocketed the difference. He didn't have a degree so he needed a contract agency to get past the HR filters.
Right now it's dog eat dog here in the States. Whenever anyone suggests having the gov't step in and fix it they're shouted down as tax and spend liberals redistributing somebody else's wealth. We can't even get health care over here.
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we need single payer health care!
we need crack down to the fake 1099'er where if you don't have the level of control that an true 1099'er gets then they must put you on the W2
When I get recruiting calls (and I get the often) I will either flat out say I don't do contract positions or I will raise my asking price (which is usually already significantly above what I am making - into the 6 figures range) because the fact is I can't get healthcare and I don't get vacations on a contract position. If workers don't start pushing back, companies will never get the hint that they can't just contract their problems out to someone else. Eventually, they will get the hint.
>> Part time gig, shitty pay, no benefits, wah wah
Git gud, people. And pick a profession that's hot and slighty undefinable (e.g., "big data architect"). Once you are, companies will throw pay, vacation and benefits (like work from home) at you like panties at a rock show.
Some of the Slashdot commenters seem to take the stance that this is a bad thing; a result of a workplace environment that's gotten so bad, you'd rather just risk going it on your own as a freelancer.
I'm not so sure?
For example, I work for a company that employs maybe 100 full-time people, but also keeps about 200 additional freelancers on a list of people they use on a contract basis for projects. Some of these folks were former employees who decided on their own to go freelance.
Having worked with a number of them over the years, I think it's a mixed bag. You've got the people who happily gave up a "stable job" with a regular salary and benefits for the contract work, because they're really good at what they do. They weren't worried about having enough work to make ends meet. In fact, they make a lot more money as a freelancer and can pick and choose what they'd prefer to do instead of have a project dictated to them as their sole job.
On the other hand? I've also spoken to a number of these freelancers who I'm really unimpressed with. They don't seem to know their way around the technologies they're supposed to be getting paid to work with, and some of them just have bad attitudes in general. I'm sure in at least some of those cases, they couldn't keep a full-time job for too long. Maybe they're good at a few specific things and that's why our company keeps them on their list of folks they use? But they're probably not a good idea to hire full-time.
I agree that "job security" isn't as much of a thing as it used to be, but that's been the case since I first entered the job market, decades ago! It's been clear to me that my parents had a level of job security that just doesn't exist for my generation, or for any of them that have come after me. Businesses today are just trying to be as efficient as possible, and technology helps automate away some of the job positions people once held where they really didn't contribute a whole lot. These days, you can't expect good pay and benefits unless you've got the knowledge and skills to warrant it -- and even then? If you work for a place that has a product or service that's not DIRECTLY tied to what you do for them, you're always at risk of losing your job through no fault of your own. (You might be amazing at database administration, but if the widget maker you work for has salespeople who slack off and don't get a decent number of widgets sold? You don't have a lot of job security there.)
Did my time there in Orrick's Wheeling office as a central system architect supporting their worldwide offices, as an employee, not a contractor. They are one of the law firms encouraging and enabling large corporations to do this, one of their prime business lines is corporate human resources legal work, finding legal ways to remove benefits from employees, protecting corporations in labor disputes, etc. etc. Using a law firm that is one of the drivers of the growing contracting work force for the NPR feature is a really poor example. They also only have an office in Wheeling because of a cozy relationship between one of the senior partners and the former governor of WV that gave them a sweet deal tax wise on a decrepit old toothpaste tube factory where their office is located. Nicely redecorated inside of course.
Seth Godin has a good course on udemy on how to be (or better: how to position yourself as) a freelancer.
https://www.udemy.com/seth-god...
Checkt it out, it's $50 but most say it's worth it. Moreover he sometimes has discount codes on his blog.
I've had several headhunters contact me about positions with manager or director in the title, but they're rent-to-own: Start as contract, and if we like you, we might hire you in a year or so.
I have been in this industry for over 30 years, and I'm well known in the business -- I do industry conference presentations, blogging, loudly volunteer on standards development, etc.. If you can't actually hire me, I don't want to work for you.
Part of the problem is that the headhunters are the contract agency, so it's not at all in their interest to go back to the employer and say, "He'd like to join, but only as a permanent employee."
One note: with the recent mostly-vile tax revisions, independent contractors get significant tax breaks. It was designed as a handout to financial and real-estate gazillionaires, but it benefits the Uber driver and other giggers.
Design for Use, not Construction!
SEP-IRAs can get 1/4 of your income, up to slightly over 50K/year. 401(k) is limited to 18.5K/yr, with an extra 6K if you're over 50. The self-employed version will allow you to pile up retirement money MUCH faster, if you have the cash to invest.
The extra fica (social security) hit hurts, it's true, but the (new this year) ability to write off 20% of your "qualified business income" (up to 315K income) certainly means for many folks their federal taxes are actually LOWER than for a regular employee.
On health care - sadly, you're completely right. The individual market is completely broken in the USA.
You're right - it's great for those with limited responsibilities, like those just out of school. For people with kids and mortgages, it can be downright scary at times. For those of us a few years from retirement, it can be good again. Health care is badly broken for everyone who didn't retire from the military after 20 years (they get single-payer for life, at affordable rates).
Practically every employer has match contributions program
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Does it matter if Bob Cratchet is a contractor or FTE? Either way, Scrooge is looking to get rid of him as soon as he can. It's the power imbalance in the system that's the problem, not the specifics of the employment contract.
That is all.
The rise of contract labor versus permanent employment has been an ongoing issue globally, ranging from Canada to France to Japan and even India. There are differences and nuances market by market, but a lot of it comes down to employers demanding workforce flexibility in the face of uncertainty, competition, and plenty of desperate underemployed people. France is a case where labor regulations are so tight, that contract labor is an easy loophole. Maybe the only place that this trend is beginning to reverse is in Japan, but that's simply because their labor force is rapidly shrinking.
It is very easy to understand. Employers have too much control over employees. Retirement savings, Medical, Dental, Vacation, Dress Code, 'Core Hours', and a long list of other pain points. Want to change employers? Great, hope you love filling out tens to hundreds of pages for your new retirement, medical, etc. And hope you love attending that latest HR sponsored 'morale' meeting, followed by yet another 'training class' to tell you don't look at, speak to, or approach the opposite sex. And oops, your new Employer's medical doesn't cover that critical procedure you need? Too bad, should have read the fine print on page 87 and translated that from medical-legalese to mean 'this expensive procedure is not covered if you have ever taken a prescription drug'. Oh, and you need to work in this new wide open cubicle farm where everyone can see every time you pick your nose... private conversation? Here, we setup some 'meeting rooms' you can use... except they are always full.
Fuck corporate control and culture, it's a bullshit environment designed to take maximum advantage of the employee without regard to actual employee health or privacy.
So far as IT goes, I can say this highlights a very unfortunate trend. There is now an expectation that highly skilled workers in a very specific discipline are available to come out of the woodwork when they are called, that they will be grateful for whatever they can get, and then will quietly slink away to try to find and compete for an opportunity to work somewhere else. We are not talking about salaried contractors hired through a contracting firm, or about the traditional contract jobs of yore, where a self-employed contractor could expect to get the big bucks and make more than enough to carry them through the gaps until their next gig, swapping the job security for financial remuneration. The expectation now is that they will take these jobs, many paying no more than what is comparable for full-time employees (and with no benefits), and like it. In general, unless the remuneration is high enough to offset many other factors (such as the uncertainties and income insecurity, lack of benefits, and the lack of employer provided training) these contract engagements should only be taken as last resort. They tend to be bad economic choices for the worker in the same way that "rent-to-own" is a bad way to furnish your home.
Legit question: what should I do to prepare myself if i want to explore the contracting world? Early 30s, no experience with contracts, but willing to learn.
I'm one of those strange people who prefers a full time job, with a steady paycheck. I know the absolute dollar value for contracts in my field is higher than I get as an FTE, but everyone I know doing contract work is constantly hustling for a new job and never knows where their money will be coming from. I work for an IT services company so I get tons of exposure to different projects. I'm not sure I'd feel the same way if I didn't get work that varied often, but knowing you're going to be paid and can cover your expenses is a relief. I'm not a natural salesman, and really don't want to be looking for work again 2 weeks into a 3-month contract. We employ contractors in some positions where I work, and it's not exactly a ringing endorsement of the contracting lifestyle overhearing them calling headhunters, juggling bills, etc.
People with families, houses and other fixed committments tend to favor steady income. Companies want a disposable, nomadic workforce that never puts down roots and can load their belongings into their car at a moment's notice. I'm strange in that I think it's a good idea for people to stick around, see their projects through, and get involved in the communities they live in. I know employer/employee loyalty is at an all-time low but it doesn't have to be. I think well-run companies that think long term (a minority, I know) don't really want a payroll full of mercenaries that they can't really count on. One of the best things that could happen through the tax code and accounting rules would be to encourage employment of FTEs over contractors. Right now, companies do everything they can to avoid hiring people because there's no incentive. If you made it so that retaining and paying employees is cheaper than a bunch of hired guns, lots of people would be much less stressed.
Bullshit. It's Globalism dummy! What do you expect when you're in direct competition with slave-labor in a 3rd world nation that can do your job over the same internet. Oh, and manufacturing is cheaper too with less environmental regulations (because China doesn't care about its citizens).
Union. Actually, I'm in favor of it, not because it will solve what you suggest, rather, because it will hasten the exodus of jobs out of this nation even further. Maybe then people will get a clue!
Life is not for the lazy.
I'm REALLY glad your generation is dying out soon. It's rare to find someone your age that's open minded or even gives a shit about anyone other than themselves. As demonstrated by your extremely unintelligent, racist comment. Die in a fire, see you in hell.
Daca is ending soon, then out you go!
it's about 6 feet. You're guaranteed to get at least that far.
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and you feel invincible. Things like health care, retirement and child birth & rearing feel too far off to be real. The way most companies implemented this is by doing it to the young employees or by outsourcing/offshoring. Divide and conquer between the old and young. Break up worker solidarity. That sort of thing.
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I've been working for local contract houses as a w-2 employee doing software programming for nearly 20 years. It has worked out very well. The contract house finds the job, farms me out, and pays me w-2 wages with a 401k and health insurance (otherwise I won't take the job). Typical job lasts 2 years or so building some new piece of business software. Whenever my current assignment runs out and the current firm puts me on the bench, I just find another contract firm with an available job. Longest I've ever been out of work is 3 weeks even during the Great Recession. My salary is in the top 5-10% for the Midwest metro area where I live. I get about 1 call a week asking if I'm available. The trick is that you have to have a good rep and a good contact list of recruiters. But with those in hand, it is as stable as permanent employment. It also has the advantage that you get to see a pretty good cross section of new problems which keeps things from becoming boring.
"command-n-chimp care" and out sourcing jobs to H1-B invaders has destabilized the work environment in America. This will require retirement of globalist assholes in government and business to fix the problem. Screw foreign invaders...
Yeah, and being a full time employee doesn't really guarantee you any safety. The usual suspects around here are legendary for their layoff cycles. You'll run into people here who've been laid off two or three times by the same company. Corporate benefits have been going to crap lately too -- you might get an extra bonus a year out of them, that might help with the difference between the FTE and contractor salaries. I made the mistake of accepting a stock grant, which accidentally made a decent amount of money for me but still almost wasn't worth the extra complexity in my taxes. Admittedly paid vacations are kind of nice, assuming they ever actually let you take them.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Oh fuck you
This is a fairly common flow of events, and often goes a little like this:
CEO doesn't like wage bill on balance sheet.
CEO looks at workers and can't figure out what they all do.
CEO decides to downsize.
CEO hires a consulting company to conduct interviews and tell CEO what s/he wants to hear.
Consulting company recommends firing workers, and CEO acts.
Time passes.
CEO doesn't like sales figures on balance sheet.
CEO discovers they actually need workers to get stuff done.
CEO hires back workers as consultants on contract basis at 3x their prior wage.
Everybody smiles.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
you shouldn't feel so safe. It wouldn't take much to wipe out that investment portfolio. 7 figures isn't a lot by today's standards and rest assured someone out there is already thinking about how to swindle you out of it.
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Many free agents aren't free by choice. There is just no other way to earn money.
-- Cheers!
A VERY large internet presence we all know about all too well is reputed to be THE most wonderful place to work.
But in this country, rather than hire employees directly, and "suffer" the consequences of regular employment contracts, they prefer to out-source their staff needs to payroll-managing body shops. Fixed term contract, no loyalty AT ALL to their "employees". The agency spouts noise about how most contracts are extended, but it's still a deliberate abuse of the laws and the social contract that companies accept when they set up shop.
And being who they are, they monitor your life continuously - if you don't suck it up, out-perform, and lick the right butt-holes, demonstrate the appropriate attitude to your "superiors", then your contract is mysteriously NOT continued, and they hire some other schmuck to take your place. No harm, no foul, they claim, it was only a fixed contract and you signed it.
Yeah, I signed it, cause I had no other option, since you fuckers don't HIRE anyone. At least in "The Circle", you were hired directly.
Job security? You must be fucking kidding.
They do this so that no one can claim discrimination or pursue them for breach of labor laws. "Fire at will", when no such thing exists in local law.
I'm not bitter - if I was a sociopathic corporation, I would insist on it too, since the country is stupid enough to permit it.
Late stage capitalism + panopticon => modern slavery.
Enjoy your coffee ..., and your private health insurance, private unemployment insurance, private accident insurance, and all the other charges (including an accountant) that you're compelled to pay because "they" have found a way where they don't need to ! :)
Maybe it's better or worse in some of the states, but it's a global phenomenon, and most of our political "leaders" have no interest in disturbing their paymasters, cause they've got theirs (as public servants, mind you) and FUCK YOU.
In the good ole days of yore, if you landed a job at a big company, you mainly had a job for life, and you got a pension when you retired that you could live on.
Those days are gone.
In the bad new days of now, when you take a job at a company, you have no job security, no pension, and you have to pay for your own retirement. This puts you in the position of having a single customer -- your company -- who has complete power over your economic well-being.
It is commonly accepted that diversification is the key to a stable economic existence. That is also true for workers. It is much better to have multiple customers than just one customer, unless that one customer offers ironclad guarantees and itself is likely to survive for many years. No guarantees these days.
I was a self-employed contractor for over 20 years of my 45 year career. Alvin Toffler in 1980 had predicted contracting to become part of what he called "the electronic cottage." In Information Systems, it began to be much harder to stay continually under contract after the major financial adjustments at the end of the last century. Mores the pity, I think. Instead of investing in high speed transit systems, why aren't we investing in higher bandwidth internet? Imagine the problems it we face today that would be addressed with the latter. But perhaps I am getting off topic.