memes

It depends on whether your business accumulates assets of value. Uber drivers are functionally employees, and they really ought to be classified as such. They can't sell their right to drive for Uber, their car wasn't exactly a business asset before they started driving for Uber. The mere fact that we say "they're diving for Uber" and not "they started an independent taxi service and have partnered with Uber" should really be all you need to know about the reality of the practical ownership and employee status when a person drives for Uber.

Anyway, when you're self-employed you should be building up assets, in part, because if things go tits up you can at least sell what's left of your business. You're right, self-employed does mean greater risk, but there's also the potential for higher reward. As a society, we benefit from having a decent fraction of the population be self-employed, because smaller businesses can be more flexible and more innovative. That's part of why it's important to have strong social safety nets, so that the risk of self-employment is lower than it has to be.