An acquaintance of mine supports the gig economy because "it must be good for workers because it allows them more freedom to take jobs they want and gives them more control over their lives. If they don't like their job, they can work for another gig employer who pays more." He is convinced that there is a huge labor shortage and that the concept of the reserve army of labor is a myth. I asked him why, if the gig economy is good for workers, capitalists overwhelmingly support it and workers overwhelmingly oppose it. He said he didn't know, then refused to consider the question any further.
His views are largely based on his own experience doing gig economy work - he does contracting work transporting hazardous chemicals and maintaining computer systems done in obsolete architectures like COBOL. This pays so well that he only has to work six months out of the year and he brags about companies getting in bidding wars to hire him. He thinks all the terribly underpaid gig workers should just do what he does. I pointed out that there are 15 million gig workers in the US but (by the statistics he provided) only 80000 openings for jobs like his, so even if people took his advice, he'd just be left with an oversaturated job field and millions of workers still stuck in their existing awful jobs. He said until gig workers took his advice and filled those jobs, there was no point in discussing that.
He said whether an employer provides health insurance doesn't matter to him because he lives in a state that kept the medicaid expansion. He also believed that no other benefits for salaried workers (retirement account matching, etc.) were worthwhile.
I sent him a link showing that a third of gig workers make sub-minimum wage and his response was "Well, maybe the other two-thirds are doing great. They should just pay for job training for the gig workers who are making below minimum wage."
At the end of the conversation he said he had no idea what any of this had to do with capitalism vs. socialism.
i love the casually cruel. it's like other human beings aren't even real to them.
and transporting hazardous materials. apparently a good combination lol
His views are largely based on his own experience
"I GOT MINE" is a hard barrier to pass for a lot of privileged people's understanding of the world.
he does contracting work transporting hazardous chemicals and maintaining computer systems done in obsolete architectures like COBOL
Does that even really count as gig economy work? To me at least, that term is intrinsically linked to all the exploitative apps like Uber. That's just being self-employed or an independent contractor in the true meaning of the word.
Lmao, while the government treats gig workers as though they're independent contractors, they really fucking aren't. There is a massive v-shape to income levels for people legally defined as independent contractors, with about 80% being either right at or below the poverty line, and about 20% being comfortably middle class.
The group that is middle class are generally either specialty tradespeople or engineers, and they're generally self-employed-ish people who are like your acquaintance and take jobs for companies or individuals to complete a technical or trade task. Building contractors also fit into this group.
The overwhelming majority are people who either do app work or are only legally defined as contractors so that their employer can deny them benefits and pay below-standard wages because they have no other options.
It always boils down to social myopia.
"I prospered, why can't everybody else?"
Bootlickers hate the idea of rich people paying any sort of tax because they believe they’ll reach that level one day, and “inheritance is about not letting your children suffer like you did.” But then when you propose to try to minimize that suffering universally, they’ll become all about personal responsibility
I had a relative said he tips waiters but not Uber drivers because “it’s different” and when another relative who’s an Uber driver just silently stares at him, the first one said “I mean I’ll tip you, of course.”
