I think HN gives off the impression that most people own company or freelance due to the content, but it is a bit of a filter effect. Similar to how everyone is living amazing awesome lives on facebook.
I work for someone else too (a Dutch university). Although I am interested in freelancing or starting my own company in the future, what brought me to Hacker News was the good signal/noise ratio. Both in terms of upvoted items and in insightful comments.
The focus on startups may filter for people who are generally interested in new technology and business methods. You have to be able to tolerate some entrepreneurial posts every day ;).
In my opinion, someone truly living an amazing awesome life wouldn't have time to advertise it on Facebook. But it might be that I have a different definition of such a life.
