During the record-breaking shutdown, the US economy lost about 10 billion dollars.  Hundreds of thousands of government workers were furloughed, and many more thousands were forced to work without pay.  However, besides just the public workers that were affected, many businesses and owners were also affected.  Here are two people on how the shutdown affected businesses.

Mark Hazlin, IPSE

People who run their own businesses as contractors for the federal government were dramatically affected by the shutdown…

The government shutdown is a prime example of how independent workers experience structural workforce discrimination that employees do not.

* Unlike workers designated as employees, federal contractors were not paid during the shutdown.
* Nor will contractors likely receive back pay, while employees likely will.
* Thousands of independent workers and their families will experience financial hardship, due to no fault of their own, and with little to no recourse.

Unlike any other developed nation in the world, the labor paradigm in America intentionally favors the employee, binding workers to their parent corporation at the cost of personal and financial freedoms.

* Discrimination has plagued our labor force and our national economy as a failed experiment that has lasted more than 75 years and counting.
* No other developed economy in the world links its workers to their company so closely.
* Binding employees to their employers work against the basic precepts of individual freedom and, as such, is a distinctly un-American characteristic that needs to be shed.

As one way to address the issues raised by the shutdown, IPSE-U.S. is calling for a contract coverage policy that protects independent workers who contract for the federal government.

* All workers should have equal benefits and protections regardless of their artificial classification as an employee or contractor
* IPSE-U.S. is asking elected officials to make this a priority for federal contractors

Shawn Breyer, Breyer Home Buyers, www.eastatlhomebuyers.com

Due to the shutdown, we have several house flips that have been sitting on the
market or have had buyers back out of buying the house due to the IRS
and FHA divisions being shut down. Even though FHA is still processing loans,
they are processing them at significantly slower rates. Since a lender has to verify the borrower’s tax records, their applications can be put on hold until the IRS is back up and running. While waiting on these aspects of first-time homeowners getting loans, our properties are sitting on the market longer, which incurs holding costs such as insurance, utilities, property taxes, loan payments, etc. In some cases, with less demand, we are having to reduce prices on properties to sell them as the demand is not as high as it was before.