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The gig economy will be the first to go.

MattGaiser 6y ago
Depends on who gets laid off. If the upper middle class people remain fine, then food delivery will remain strong as will Amazon delivery.
- troughway 6y ago
  You know that the upper middle class is the one that loses the most in these recessions, their risks of slipping into poverty rise drastically. Recessions cause the movement of money to slow down, that's why getting out of a recession is so hard. Nobody wants to spend money, especially those on the brink. The entire thing is one big spiral, whether or not it's caused by an actual economic downturn or an external actor (in our case, this whole COVID-19 tragedy), the result is the same.
  - pmiller2 6y ago
    > You know that the upper middle class is the one that loses the most in these recessions, their risks of slipping into poverty rise drastically. This is an interesting, and certainly plausible assertion, but do you have data backing it up?
    - troughway 6y ago
      https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/12/04/how-the-great-recession-hurt-the-middle-class-twice/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/12/04/how-the-g... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7892788/Middle-class-had-biggest-losses-from-financial-crisis.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7892788/Middle-cla... Most recessions/economic downturns have the same story - Great Recession, 1980s, 2008, recent ones.
      - pmiller2 6y ago
        I didn't see anything about middle class people slipping into poverty in those links.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
willlff 6y ago
I am not so sure about that. I could see a scenario where smaller organizations rely more on individual freelancers than large consulting firms for tasks like managing websites and reporting.
AznHisoka 6y ago
If Upwork is considered a gig economy, then I disagree. Upwork (or Odesk as it was known back then) really flourished and grew substantially during the last recession in 2008-2009.
orky56 6y ago
The gig economy is part of the larger sharing economy where assets that were traditionally viewed as fixed (e.g. cars, residences, labor) are now seen as variable based on the predictable and limited nature of consumption. Companies appreciate the flexibility of pairing ephemeral labor with ephemeral needs. We're quickly seeing serverless in cloud computing and the equivalent in human capital is inevitable with unemployed and underemployed as well as a high minimum wage with an ever increasing inflation and cost of living. The unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic along with predictable spikes in demand (Black Friday) just accelerate this need.
- rXoX 6y ago
  "sharing economy" Found the dissonance. Tell us more about magic elves and lizard people.

Depends on who gets laid off. If the upper middle class people remain fine, then food delivery will remain strong as will Amazon delivery.

troughway 6y ago
You know that the upper middle class is the one that loses the most in these recessions, their risks of slipping into poverty rise drastically. Recessions cause the movement of money to slow down, that's why getting out of a recession is so hard. Nobody wants to spend money, especially those on the brink. The entire thing is one big spiral, whether or not it's caused by an actual economic downturn or an external actor (in our case, this whole COVID-19 tragedy), the result is the same.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  > You know that the upper middle class is the one that loses the most in these recessions, their risks of slipping into poverty rise drastically. This is an interesting, and certainly plausible assertion, but do you have data backing it up?
  - troughway 6y ago
    https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/12/04/how-the-great-recession-hurt-the-middle-class-twice/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/12/04/how-the-g... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7892788/Middle-class-had-biggest-losses-from-financial-crisis.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7892788/Middle-cla... Most recessions/economic downturns have the same story - Great Recession, 1980s, 2008, recent ones.
    - pmiller2 6y ago
      I didn't see anything about middle class people slipping into poverty in those links.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

willlff 6y ago

I am not so sure about that. I could see a scenario where smaller organizations rely more on individual freelancers than large consulting firms for tasks like managing websites and reporting.

AznHisoka 6y ago

If Upwork is considered a gig economy, then I disagree. Upwork (or Odesk as it was known back then) really flourished and grew substantially during the last recession in 2008-2009.

orky56 6y ago

The gig economy is part of the larger sharing economy where assets that were traditionally viewed as fixed (e.g. cars, residences, labor) are now seen as variable based on the predictable and limited nature of consumption. Companies appreciate the flexibility of pairing ephemeral labor with ephemeral needs. We're quickly seeing serverless in cloud computing and the equivalent in human capital is inevitable with unemployed and underemployed as well as a high minimum wage with an ever increasing inflation and cost of living. The unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic along with predictable spikes in demand (Black Friday) just accelerate this need.

rXoX 6y ago
"sharing economy" Found the dissonance. Tell us more about magic elves and lizard people.