>> It turns out, that number is very low, so low that most people aren't rationally taking those jobs. Factoring in depreciation, I often hear that they loose m

>> It turns out, that number is very low, so low that most people aren't rationally taking those jobs. Factoring in depreciation, I often hear that they loose money to work (not always, but damn close). > This is simply hard to believe. There are over a million driving for Uber. An overwhelming majority of them must be making money, because the idea that any significant fraction of a million of people is in the red at the end of a year simply is ludictious. I think the error you're making is the assumption that everyone in the market is a rational actor with good information and understanding, so that evidence of particular market behavior is evidence that it's rational and beneficial to the person doing it. It's very believable to imagine gig economy jobs where the workers typically lose money doing them, but it takes them a a long time to figure that out, because the pay is obvious but much of the expense is obscured. Fresh, naive marks take over for those workers who get wise and drop out, maintaining the population of workers. The combination of corporate marketing and desperate hope then help maintain a supply of fresh, naive marks.