There is no shortage of skilled people who would like to be self-employed and who would also like to work at home for distant customers. The supply side of the market is there. The demand side continues to present a different picture. Reports have consistently confirmed that the main barrier to distance working is the attitude of managers, and this is the case for both employed and self-employed relationships.
People in Europe seeking work are equally prepared to contract with a company in America as in Austria; people in Africa or India actively seek telework opportunities in the developed economies. In Europe, discussion of this phenomenon during the late Twentieth Century has been mainly preoccupied with this as a perceived threat. Emotive terms such as "social dumping" have typified a response that has perhaps been rather understandable in a Europe with its own unemployment problems and profound uncertainty about all aspects of the so-called "Information Society".
One thing is clear. Unless we very quickly and with brutal determination build a wall between Europe and the rest of the global networked economy, a global New Marker for Jobs is a reality not a conjecture. Whether such a defensive wall is now feasible is open to serious doubt, but there are still voices raised in favour of building it. Whether it is desirable is as much – probably more – a matter of philosophy and belief as of rational evaluation. As soon as we step outside the political and philosophical debate, the practical market approach to this is to ask, "What outcome is most likely?" and to act on the basis of actively pursuing desirable outcomes rather than agonising about possibilities.