3 ms·

It is absolutely, positively, incontrovertibly full-stop dishonesty to throw up the smokescreen of "oh they're choosing the 'gig economy' because of flexibility

It is absolutely, positively, incontrovertibly full-stop dishonesty to throw up the smokescreen of "oh they're choosing the 'gig economy' because of flexibility!". They're "choosing the 'gig economy'" 'cause there's no real jobs. The choice being made is between that and unemployment, not that and full-time work. "Flexibility" is what it's called when PR flacks, from their actual-full-time jobs (but, ha ha, not for long, the bell tolls for thee too), have to hide the hatchet job they do to the poor. It's not some "but fairings!" situation--it's a systemic attack on people.

longerthoughts 9y ago
>They're "choosing the 'gig economy'" 'cause there's no real jobs. The choice being made is between that and unemployment, not that and full-time work. This may very well be the more common case but it's not responsible to generalize either way. If you have evidence to support your claim please share.
- lovich 9y ago
  I know when I was told to go home at 31.5 hours every week it wasn't by my choice. The months it took to scrape together enough money to get a car and interview at non retail jobs also wasn't really a choice unless you count "give up and be homeless" as a reasonable option
smallgovt 9y ago
The vitriol and blanket generalizations are neither helpful nor accurate. It's an indisputable fact that these gig economy jobs provide more flexibility in the form of being able to choose your hours of work. Is this flexibility a critical motivation to accepting work? For some people, yes. For others, no. Is unemployment a critical motivation to accepting this type of work? For some people, yes. For others, no. You want to paint this as black and white when the reality is only SOME of the workforce is faced with unemployment as the only alternative. My question to you is: Do you know what fraction of gig workers would actually otherwise be unemployed? If I had to guess, it's a small minority.
ars 9y ago
> They're "choosing the 'gig economy'" 'cause there's no real jobs. Unemployment is historically low right now. Yet, tons of people are still choosing gig work. So there is something about it that people value. You can't just say there are no other jobs, because that's just not true.
111_1_111 9y ago
> cause there's no real jobs This is a flat-out lie. How can you complain about "full-stop dishonesty" and then make a preposterous claim like this? People choose to work in "gig-economy" jobs because the conditions are better for them than in other jobs they could get. By throwing up legal hurdles to gig-economy jobs as you seem to be advocating, you are only hurting workers.

longerthoughts 9y ago

>They're "choosing the 'gig economy'" 'cause there's no real jobs. The choice being made is between that and unemployment, not that and full-time work. This may very well be the more common case but it's not responsible to generalize either way. If you have evidence to support your claim please share.

lovich 9y ago
I know when I was told to go home at 31.5 hours every week it wasn't by my choice. The months it took to scrape together enough money to get a car and interview at non retail jobs also wasn't really a choice unless you count "give up and be homeless" as a reasonable option

smallgovt 9y ago

The vitriol and blanket generalizations are neither helpful nor accurate. It's an indisputable fact that these gig economy jobs provide more flexibility in the form of being able to choose your hours of work. Is this flexibility a critical motivation to accepting work? For some people, yes. For others, no. Is unemployment a critical motivation to accepting this type of work? For some people, yes. For others, no. You want to paint this as black and white when the reality is only SOME of the workforce is faced with unemployment as the only alternative. My question to you is: Do you know what fraction of gig workers would actually otherwise be unemployed? If I had to guess, it's a small minority.

ars 9y ago

> They're "choosing the 'gig economy'" 'cause there's no real jobs. Unemployment is historically low right now. Yet, tons of people are still choosing gig work. So there is something about it that people value. You can't just say there are no other jobs, because that's just not true.

111_1_111 9y ago

> cause there's no real jobs This is a flat-out lie. How can you complain about "full-stop dishonesty" and then make a preposterous claim like this? People choose to work in "gig-economy" jobs because the conditions are better for them than in other jobs they could get. By throwing up legal hurdles to gig-economy jobs as you seem to be advocating, you are only hurting workers.