I own a consulting/contracting company... (Score 3, Insightful)

... and I've been contracting for about 10 years myself... I'll tell you why I love it:

1) Variety, variety, variety... Rather than getting tied to the same code for years, I get to move from project to project...

2) More control over my life... I can usually stay as busy as I want, but if I want to take a month off, I just stall signing up for the next contract...

3) It's been said already in this thread - there is no such thing as job stability...

4) I am constantly thinking about adding value for my clients... Rather than thinking of myself as an expense, I think, how can the client afford not to hire me ... Everyone should do this - I think working on contract makes people think about this more...

5) Lots of tax advantages... I am in Canada, so I suspect you're able to write off as much or more than you can in Canada.