The Gig Economy

[Dill]

(05-09-2019, 08:32 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I see that nobody is getting the real thing here, not even you.  (and I consider you one of the brightest folk on here)

The real issue is a matter of supply and demand.  When Uber and the like were in need of drivers, it paid well.  Now, that too many people are doing it, the pay goes downs.  When objects, commodities, skills, etc. are in demand, the pay is always higher.  When a particular market is flooded with people all equally capable of doing the same exact thing, their value goes down.  It's the same with any job sector.

Markets do achieve momentary and precarious balance of supply and demand at times, sure.  But your article is not about that.

It is about how workers were subjected to an algorithm which maximized their profitability, at their expense.

The title of this thread is "the Gig economy." There is an expanding gig economy because traditional jobs no longer float a family the way they used to.  This is not so much a matter of supply and demand, but a matter of how so many enterprises in the US have reorganized their business model to replace employees with "contractors" for whom they need not provide benefits, and whom they can use more efficiently as part-time labor.

It is a matter of increased productivity and stagnant or lower wages, and the resulting wage gap. 

To the degree it is a matter of supply and demand, it is a matter of crafting an economy in which labor is greater supply than demand.