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The article deals with the legal term of dependent employment, which serves as a starting point for the collection of social security contributions. Its concretisation by the courts moves in a field of tension between the goal of legal certainty and a rapidly changing world of work in which forms of work and traditional demarcation criteria lose their shape. In addition, there is an acceptance problem with regard to social security as a whole if the state grants a comparable social security to persons who haven't been paying contributions at all. Possible solutions include distance bans for contribution-financed social benefits, as well as the introduction of a social insurance for all gainfully employed persons, including the self-employed. At the same time, however, it is necessary to reorganise the relationship between citizens and the state and to strengthen individual responsibility.