We live in an era when the rapid integration of the global economy is causing great stress in the lives of many people. Workers in the manufacturing sector, regardless of their location and nationality, can lose their jobs in large numbers if the facility where they are employed is no longer productive enough. And in many a country, social benefits are being trimmed constantly to make the welfare state sustainable during conditions of rapid population aging.

Under such circumstances, it is politically explosive - and in a democracy ultimately self-defeating - to let some individuals go on in their belief that they, unlike most regular tax-paying citizens, do not really have to play by the rules.

In such a world, it is pivotal that people live and operate under the same set of rules. There cannot be one set for all regular wage earners, who have their taxes and other charges automatically deducted from their monthly wages, and another set for people who enjoy great "flexibility".