The Gig Economy

[SunsetBengal]

(05-09-2019, 09:01 PM)Dill Wrote: 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.

I understand the point you're making, and will reflect back to my own example, once again.  Prior to the last "big recession", I had a semi-successful career as a self-employed contractor in the skilled trades.  I did quality work, I climbed up the ladder of shops to subcontract from, and was pretty much near the top.  I worked in Beach Houses, people's retirement palaces on Golf Courses, did store renovation work for good name brands.  When the recession hit, it was like someone pulled the plug on a light.  I toughed it out for a few years, hoping the work would come back.

Along the way, I blew every dollar I had stashed away, had to cancel health insurance, allow student loans to go back into delinquency, was falling behind on simple truck and house payments.  All that, just hoping that the work would come back, the way it used to be.  Finally, my father sat me down and told me it was time to think about doing something different.  He said "You've already got a degree that you don't use (Mass Comm), why don't you think about going back and studying something that gives you a better skill set?  Being 40 at the time, this seemed most daunting, the idea of going back to school at 40 sounded more like a joke than a solution.  But, I took a couple weeks and started checking out options.  I eventually settled upon Land Surveying Technology, as the nature of the profession appealed to me, and the folks I asked around the community told me that Surveyors had work, even in tough times.

Along the way to getting where I am currently, the work from my previous profession started to come back.  However, I noticed a stark difference.  The work that I used to do for "X" amount of dollars per square foot, was now cut in half.  When I took a look around, I quickly saw why.  The Latino crews had taken all of the work, at a much lower price, just to secure the work.  They would flood a job with bodies, and get it done in half the time, and move onto the next one.  I don't dog them for that, they work hard.  But, the motto of construction is still;  Cheap, fast, good.  Pick any two..  I took pride in high quality work, and could not compete with lower cost, "speed crews", so I am glad that I chose to learn a skill that less people are capable of doing.

I guess the moral of my story is that even though I was studying a new profession, my old work did come back.  I took a look around and saw how flooded the market was, and decided to stay the new course.  Perhaps those ride share drivers should consider doing something similar?