David Barringer, winner of last year’s Winterhouse Writing Awards, and all-around brilliant person we’d be jealous of if only we weren’t so green with envy, has written a spectacular take-down of the realities of freelancing. We have to just quote, as even to paraphrase is pathetic:

It’s a paradox, the home expanding its functional independence as the world expands its functional interdependence. The more globalization enables temporary collaboration of individuals across the globe, the more individuals are forced to become permanently self-reliant. I work collaboratively, but I survive on my own. I am paid for the task and no more. No benefits, healthcare, insurance, overtime, investments. I’ll be repaying my own school loans as I’m taking out new loans for my kids, and I’ll be paying for my Boomer parents’ aging lifestyles even as I can’t afford to invest in my own retirement.

Given that we’re currently embroiled with more than one magazine which treats payment as a post-game favor—get it together, Surface—we thought we’d turn it over to you, our cadre of similarly like-minded individuals.

Who pays? Who doesn’t? What’s the time-frame like, and what do you do when it reaches obscene proportions? We know of one freelancer who sends an x’s and o’s-filled reminder on Day 91, and we know of another who just asks what’s up. What works better? Phone calls or emails? Legal threats or bare-assed pleading? What’s the farthest you’ve gone, and have you ever just given up? Who are you willing to keep writing for because of the status or support, and who have you had to cut loose?

Comments or tips(at)edificial(dot)com. Anonymity is, as always, assured.

Generation Squeezed [AIGA Voice]