This is the worst part IMO, in theory it's great that everyone can have the freedom to do what they want, but the reality is most people don't have the skills, the right idea, etc... to make a successful startup and would have been better off working for someone else.
Is this a unique problem to our industry? In a housing boom do construction people start making their own construction companies instead of working for others?
What I witnessed during a regional housing boom where I live is exactly that: employees starting their own companies. So instead of paying a construction worker $25 an hour, you're suddenly paying his company $80 an hour for the same work. And you have little choice but to do so because part and parcel with the housing boom was a skilled labour shortage! And once the employee becomes a company, the companies hiring them were suddenly more limited in what they could demand and the workers were more inclined to set their own hours and do the work as they preferred because, as they saw it, they were now business owners who could do their own thing instead of an employee beholden to someone else's preferences on hours and work style.
From what I saw, some individuals regretted that decision because as it turns out, despite some added flexibility, they just wanted to work as a plumber or an electrician. They didn't want to have the added responsibility of being a business owner.
>but the reality is most people don't have the skills, the right idea, etc... to make a successful startup and would have been better off working for someone else.
You never know that until hindsight, and the opportunity cost for finding out for yourself, whether a new college grad or an established (financially cushioned) engineer, is historically low.
Is this a unique problem to our industry? In a housing boom do construction people start making their own construction companies instead of working for others?