Freelancer - who is this in the modern labor market?

Back in the 90s Bill Gates wrote that soon more and more people will work from home remotely, without wasting time on the road. In general, he was right. It is customary to assume that the freelancer is engaged in remote work. Who is this in terms of social status, profession, occupation? In fact, the concept, unlike the word, is far from new. In Europe, and all over the world, long ago there were so-called "free spearmen" - this is how the word "freelancer" is translated. Who is it? And how are they related to hunting?
There is nothing really warlike, except that they themselves seek for their living, the means to live. Another meaning of this word is a free artist. So, freelancer - who is this? This is a person who works "for himself," a representative of the free profession, who is self-seeking orders and customers. In the modern world, they include, first of all, photographers, journalists, translators, programmers, designers. In principle, it was so long ago. Recall that over the past 200-300 years, representatives of creative professions increasingly refused to serve at the court (at the chapel, at the cathedral, at the theater). One of the first such free artists was the great Mozart. It was he who refused salary and began to work on orders from various private clients and theaters, whereas before him composers and musicians usually served in the courts of the magnates.

The same style of life was led by many writers who collaborated with various editions and publishing houses as journalists, publicists or authors. Undoubtedly, regular correspondents and photographers are often published in magazines, newspapers, online publications. However, the worldwide trend indicates that more and more people are leaving "forced" jobs with salaries, to be called the proud word "freelancer". Who is this? Architects, graphic designers, creators of fashion collections. Developers of Internet sites and photographers selling their pictures on Stock exchanges (drains). This is freelance translators who fulfill a specific order and receive payment for it (by the number of pages, words, signs, hours), and not for sitting in the office from 9 to 17. If such professions existed for a long time and it was on this principle that they functioned Recently there are other types of activity. Freelance work is also the administration of network groups (on Facebook or VKontakte), this is content management. Increasingly, even large corporations prefer not to keep their employees (for example, in advertising) in the state, but to give orders to "free artists". From the economic and psychological point of view, such a decision is justified. It is well known that if a person receives a guaranteed salary, then over time, the desire for the same amount to do as little as possible is only intensified. Consequently, the productivity of full-time employees falls with the increase in their length of service. In addition, there are also such phenomena as professional burnout and exhaustion of creative potential. In this case, freelancing can be an excellent solution.

What does this give the customer?

The opportunity to choose a specialist in the portfolio, according to the creative concept. What does this mean for a freelancer? The ability to choose a customer, to cooperate with which he will be interested. Constantly new projects, fresh ideas save from stagnation, from "zamylivaniya" eyes. The ability to plan your work day and schedule the way it's convenient for a freelancer, not a boss, to set your prices for services, to do what you like is all absolute advantages. By cons are the need to constantly search for new customers, high competition, dumping rates. Nevertheless, for most of those who decide on such a way of life, the positive aspects far outweigh all negative ones.