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The Gig economy jobs are a race to the bottom of the pay scale now. You can get the least expensive services by using workers that have no insurance, vacations,
by WheelsAtLarge 7y ago
The Gig economy jobs are a race to the bottom of the pay scale now. You can get the least expensive services by using workers that have no insurance, vacations, sick days or any type of benefits but is that the work environment that we want to encourage? I get it. It's nice to be independent but it's even better to have a job that lets you have at the very least a satisfactory life.
Technology can give us jobs that free us from the traditional chains that we all know but we also need to figure out how to make sure those workers don't get exploited.
Technology is just part of the answer. We also need to have social and political changes. So we can have the jobs that we want without destroying the worker protections that our previous generations have fought so hard to gain.
Making sure that there are laws that protect workers is the start. The answer to the right pay for the gig economy workers will come. But we can't do it by removing all benefits from the workers and not have any other way for them to get them.
I know one thing. What Uber and Lyft provide is needed so companies will figure out how to provide it even with new laws.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoI’m kind of a techie social activist myself, and you’re very right about technology not being the whole solution. I think people forget that no technology can solve all of our problems. The technology is a tool but we also need to organize with one another in the human sphere and decide what is fair and what is not - what rules we want to play by. And I’m with you that we should question whether we want to live in a world where so many workers lack basic benefits. In the long term I want to see us end employment-based social programs, but we’re not there yet. Until we get there, we definitely should make sure workers are treated as workers with all the legal benefits that entails. Have you ever read Murray Bookchin?
- WheelsAtLarge 7y ago>Have you ever read Murray Bookchin? I have not but it sounds like it's someone I should. Thx.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoYou're very welcome. I first came to appreciate Bookchin through his interviews on YouTube, but I am now reading a book of his essays called "The Next Revolution", which I can recommend!
- PunksATawnyFill 7y agoEveryone continues to ignore a glaring problem in the USA: Your health insurance should have nothing to do with your job. When people carp about "benefits," that's really what they're talking about, isn't it? And it's an anachronistic result of incompetent legislation from the WWII era. Fix THAT. Then we can all have "benefits" without any dependence on a particular job.
- WheelsAtLarge 7y agoTrue, a better future should include health care for all. Now people get locked out of health services because they don't have the right job. That should not be the case ever. Especially, if you get up every day and contribute your labor to improve society.