Comment Re:I'm getting tired of this industry (Score 1) 75
I've spent about half my 30-year career as an employee and half as a contractor (which I am now). When you count benefits and everything else, the difference in net cost to the client isn't as much as you'd think. The advantage to the client is disposability. While it may look like companies fire their employees as easily as they throw out their cafeteria trash, there's more overhead involved in getting rid of an employee (even without tenure, collective bargaining,etc.) and WAY more when hiring an employee than when renting and returning a contractor.
Speaking of net, my net income as a contractor (full-time, on-site) is not a whole lot different from the equivalent employee position. (YMMV, especially if you're an H1-B.) Of course, I bill short-term work much, much higher, but that's because there's less of it. I prefer the (very relative) stability of being on a full-time PSA versus billing a couple hours a week from a dozen different clients.