The penalties can be hefty, to include:If the misclassification was unintentional, the employer faces at least the following penalties based on the fact that all payments to misclassified independent contractors have been reclassified as wages: $50 for each Form W-2 that the employer failed to file because of classifying workers as an independent contractor.Since the employer failed to withhold income taxes, it faces penalties of 1.5% of the wages, plus 40% of the FICA taxes (social security and Medicare) that were not withheld from the employee and 100% of the matching FICA taxes the employer should have paid.

Of course, that's one in a long list of determining criteria, and like you said, unless the person is working full-time for one employer, it's probably not an issue.

How stable is that economy, if a major employer fell out, what income levels would take the direct hit?

You could always employ a bird dog or tell people on that block that you will pay a finders fee if they find a property coming up for sale that is not on the MLS (yet).  

There is no doubt that it can melt further and it is possible that 7500 will be seen as a goal to attain and not a baseline to maintain.Although the government-financial sector are creating more money out of thin air by the minute and lending this to people (called injecting "liquidity into the economy") , the people will have to be really stupid to go back into the debt trap by taki g the bait of easy credit.Even Obama realises that he has to find some other issue than the economy to maintain a positive media image, nuclear weapons.

She likes to say she's "self employed" thats what she calls not having a job....she's one of those people that want everyone to think she's rich but has nothing.. the remodeling of the bathrooms she paid for with money from a car accident, still knowing they will loose the house...Idiot they have no assets for the bank to go after and are about $25k behind on payments....

., a new major employeer coming in, new government policy) that will force appreciation, or something crazy happens like lenders being willing to give everyone and their cat a 100% loan.The math on multis is similar to what I wrote above.

You usually cannot do that if you're still employed with the company with the 401k.Assuming you're not a disqualified party w.r.t. the IRA, by far the easiest way to do this is with a loan.

The bank pulled a bait and switch at the latest minute (was supposed to be a 75% LTV cash out refi at 5.5%, end up being 65 talked up to 70% LTV @ 6.25%) but such is life.

However, employment is high and the city had negative migration for the past couple of years because of it.