This is a weak point in America's business culture, and there's an opportunity to engineer it away. Fictitious business name applications (and changes) take place on a county-by-county basis, and there are ~3000 counties in America, all with their own set of records and their own administrative systems. Varying rules by county and state make it really easy for businesses to hide from consumer scrutiny. Indeed, I think part of the reason that people feel 'government' sucks is not that we have too much government, but that we have too many governments and it's too easy for bad actors to work this system...or rather the >3000 slightly different systems that are very poorly integrated.
I actually assumed the article would be about the Southwestern company, an organization whose reputation for exploiting its self-employed staff is known on the other side of the Atlantic, but still recruits from the university campuses that haven't banned it. But they've been enlisting college-age kids to sell books on doorsteps under exactly the same name since just after the Civil War and they pay their BBB dues...
Some of these companies are dirtier, but the problem with "self-employed" remote salespeople whose lives are controlled by the company is deeper than knowing who the entities are, since neither the crews nor the people that actually persuaded to buy the merchandise are likely to do the research. That's the part where more protection is needed
And I say this as someone that did a self-employed remote door-to-door job in consecutive summers with the same company back at university whilst having other options.
Yes, it's true that you have to work 80 hours per week, in a town where you don't know anybody, and where you don't have a place to live (you actually have to knock on doors and find a place to live). I mean, it sounds crazy on paper, and over 50% of people quit, but if you can make it through the summer, you really learn a lot about yourself and what you're capable of.
Ummm... After getting abandoned 10 times, wouldn't you nix the 11th trip? (If you're good enough for easy cash, you won't get left behind. If you're not good enough to get the easy cash, how is it profitable?)
It's pretty awful exploitation.
Life is a series of 4th grade math problems and, unfortunately for some people, 4th grade math remains difficult for them.
And to cap it all off, some young smart-looking black kid actually interrupted me to sell stuff at my front-door whilst I was reading this article.
How do you address something like this? It's hard to imagine there's so much competition for jobs at McDs or Chick Filet or Aldi (reputedly $12/hour+benefits), that smart-looking, communicative people would rather go door to door selling magazine subscriptions.
When I was in High School I worked in fast food. 2-3 days a week we had people asking for applications - which we never accepted because we had a ton. These weren't teenagers either. I was shocked at how many people wanted to work there. This was in a fairly low income area - it was a job and people were looking for jobs.
I fell asleep by the end of that paragraph - gimme the fac's, dude ...
