Why should the gig economy even be a thing? It seems really great for the companies (make huge amounts of money), pretty great for users (cheap taxis, cheap acc

Why should the gig economy even be a thing? It seems really great for the companies (make huge amounts of money), pretty great for users (cheap taxis, cheap accommodation), and absolutely terrible for most others - whether that’s the drivers (I’m sure some are happy, but the fact is the pay absolutely stinks, which is how the companies want it) or people suffering from increased traffic (Uber) or the disturbance of community (Airbnb). It’s just an incredible feat of mental acrobatics that hacker news convinces itself that the gig economy must be a good thing and must exist and it’s the government that’s behind, rather than the more obvious conclusion that _we have worker protections for a reason_ and these companies are not “disrupting” anything other than employment laws that protect the exploitation of workers, and other laws that protect wider society. Just because some says it is “tech” doesn’t meant it’s good or we have to support it. Just feels like massive groupthink or lack of experience of the reality on the ground for most people.