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I find it funny that the news media treats working for yourself as a new relatively phenomena fueled by a few companies when Daniel Pink (and others) were thoro

I find it funny that the news media treats working for yourself as a new relatively phenomena fueled by a few companies when Daniel Pink (and others) were thoroughly documenting the shift from salaried to self-employed as far back as 2002. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/165415.Free_Agent_Nation http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/165415.Free_Agent_Nation All the current crop of companies did is reduce the transaction costs low enough to democratize working for yourself just about anything can participate. Once anyone can participate, it's a natural outcome that earnings in these markets will deflate and stabilize around the price that the least skilled/educated are willing to work for. The biggest irony is that without these companies, a lot of the people doing this kind of would probably be unemployed or underemployed. There was a LOT of latent demand that went unsatisfied. Transportation network companies haven't just taken away some of the demand from existing options like taxies and livery companies, but have increased the size of the market by at least one other of magnitude in terms of rides and miles driven. AirBnB enabled people to capitalize on under-utilized real estate assets that they own or rent with a little administrative overhead as the only labor input. The real failure isn't the gig economy, but government economic policy that drives some aspects of living costs higher while real income drops. The biggest culprit here are housing costs. Deflation in real income isn't a problem if there is a corresponding deflation in cost of living expenses as well.

cmahler7 10y ago
I agree, gig economy is just a symptom. College grads aren't working as baristas and Uber drivers by choice, it's because the economy is absolute garbage and has been for nearly a decade now.
- smsm42 10y ago
  Or because they got a garbage degree because they bought into an idea that getting an overpriced useless degree is the only entry way to the job market.
  - John23832 10y ago
    That's not necessarily their fault though. These people were sold a dream, and they did what they thought they had to do to enter the market. I'm sure their parents weren't great forward thinkers either, it just so happened that the (blue collar job) dream they were sold worked for them until recently.
    - TheAdamAndChe 10y ago
      It's not like young people were deceived either. The economy sucks for young graduates, but it's absolutely savage for high school graduates.
      - smsm42 10y ago
        You're saying, working as Starbucks barrista while holding a useless degree and $50K in student loan debt is actually way better than working as Starbucks barrista straight out of high school? Not sure I see why it is so.
        TheAdamAndChe 10y ago
        I'm saying statistically, college graduates get decent jobs much more frequently than high school graduates. Whether or not the cost/benefit analysis pays off for them depends on how much debt they have, what degree they got, where they live, and the socioeconomic status of their parents.
    - smsm42 10y ago
      It's not their fault maybe but selling not only continues but actually increases. We are learning nothing from it. Now we're being sold that if we make all that scheme taxpayer-financed and produce even more degree-holders, no matter what that degree actually does or whether the market needs it, the situation somehow would become much better because statistics looking 30 years behind says going to college back then increases potential earnings now. It's like saying if we see that CEO earns much more than janitors, then calling janitors "CEO" would make them millionaires. Pure magical thinking.
clairity 10y ago
"AirBnB enabled people to capitalize on under-utilized real estate assets that they own or rent with a little administrative overhead as the only labor input. The real failure isn't the gig economy, but government economic policy that drives some aspects of living costs higher while real income drops. The biggest culprit here are housing costs." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ you praise airBnB for unlocking economic value yet demonize housing costs. the discordance here is that airBnB encourages rent-seeking behavior which will worsen housing costs, as that rental value gets priced into the cost of the home over time. for economic stability's sake, we should favor labor over asset ownership in our economic policy.

cmahler7 10y ago

I agree, gig economy is just a symptom. College grads aren't working as baristas and Uber drivers by choice, it's because the economy is absolute garbage and has been for nearly a decade now.

smsm42 10y ago
Or because they got a garbage degree because they bought into an idea that getting an overpriced useless degree is the only entry way to the job market.
- John23832 10y ago
  That's not necessarily their fault though. These people were sold a dream, and they did what they thought they had to do to enter the market. I'm sure their parents weren't great forward thinkers either, it just so happened that the (blue collar job) dream they were sold worked for them until recently.
  - TheAdamAndChe 10y ago
    It's not like young people were deceived either. The economy sucks for young graduates, but it's absolutely savage for high school graduates.
    - smsm42 10y ago
      You're saying, working as Starbucks barrista while holding a useless degree and $50K in student loan debt is actually way better than working as Starbucks barrista straight out of high school? Not sure I see why it is so.
      - TheAdamAndChe 10y ago
        I'm saying statistically, college graduates get decent jobs much more frequently than high school graduates. Whether or not the cost/benefit analysis pays off for them depends on how much debt they have, what degree they got, where they live, and the socioeconomic status of their parents.
  - smsm42 10y ago
    It's not their fault maybe but selling not only continues but actually increases. We are learning nothing from it. Now we're being sold that if we make all that scheme taxpayer-financed and produce even more degree-holders, no matter what that degree actually does or whether the market needs it, the situation somehow would become much better because statistics looking 30 years behind says going to college back then increases potential earnings now. It's like saying if we see that CEO earns much more than janitors, then calling janitors "CEO" would make them millionaires. Pure magical thinking.

clairity 10y ago

"AirBnB enabled people to capitalize on under-utilized real estate assets that they own or rent with a little administrative overhead as the only labor input. The real failure isn't the gig economy, but government economic policy that drives some aspects of living costs higher while real income drops. The biggest culprit here are housing costs." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ you praise airBnB for unlocking economic value yet demonize housing costs. the discordance here is that airBnB encourages rent-seeking behavior which will worsen housing costs, as that rental value gets priced into the cost of the home over time. for economic stability's sake, we should favor labor over asset ownership in our economic policy.