&gt; The only reason developers are employees is because contract developers are more expensive than employees who don&#x27;t realize sodas aren&#x27;t actually that expensive for adults with real skills.<p>Uh, no. Being an employee has a lot of rights that a 1099 person doesn&#x27;t have, like the right to unionize, the ability to collect unemployment insurance if the company you&#x27;re working for goes under, being a part of a health insurance pool for lower medical costs, access to the Family and Medical Leave Act rights, etc. There are a lot of things that employees get that aren&#x27;t just &quot;free sodas&quot;.