The last mentioned line of reasoning is of great importance today in general, and in particular for the considerations that will be proposed in the following pages: any restriction of the employer’s freedom to dismiss turns the employment contract into an insurance contract, with a trade-off taking place between stability of employment and level of earnings (because of the ‘‘insurance premium’’ that the workers pay their employers, in terms of lower wages). The imposition of regular employment stability, in order to guarantee workers’security against adverse contingencies, therefore, implies a cost not only for outsiders (in that it becomes more difficult for them to gain access to the protected sphere), but also for those it protects, since it can reduce their earnings. This may go some way towards explaining the deliberate ‘‘flight’’ of the best endowed workers out of employer–employee relationships and into self-employment, or even out of countries where stability is most rigidly imposed; and we will see how this can jeopardize one of the fundamental labour law commitments.