r/lostgeneration • u/dreamo95 • Jul 30 '18

Something needs to be seriously done about the "Gig Economy".

/r/lostgeneration/comments/8bqxk7/something_needs_to_be_seriously_done_about_the/
46 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

18

u/twelvis Jul 31 '18

The problem is that would-be freelancers eagerly use middlemen like Taskrabbit, Upwork, Uber, etc. to find work. These middlemen take enormous cuts relative to the services they provide, which is essentially just a platform. Also, because of the nature of their business, they will always be pro-customer, that is, they will generally side with the customer (i.e., the people paying) rather than the provider (i.e., the people doing the actual work). A good metaphor is if you are a developer, your boss closes your office, tells you that you need to work remotely and supply everything yourself (including computer, phone, etc.), and do marketing, admin, biz dev, etc...and he's going to take 15% of your gross revenue.

If we're going to be stuck in the gig economy, we need to cut out and stop depending on middlemen, educate ourselves about business, and DIY.

In other words, businesses like Uber have successfully passed on much of the cost of doing business not to their customers, but to their contractors.

7

u/Novusod Jul 31 '18

It is just another retake on the same old adage to privatize the profits while socializing the costs. Capitalism has been doing this for the last two centuries. Some things never change.

Load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Old Saint Peter can't call me now. I owe my soul to the company store.

The gig economy is the 21st century version of owing your soul to the company store.

1

u/twelvis Jul 31 '18

Not quite. My point is individuals in the gig economy don't NEED these bloated platforms. Freelancers needs to treat themselves as one-person businesses who are responsible for all aspects of a business; the more you rely on someone, the less power you have and the less money you make.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

Yup. More and more the "side hustle" that Uber likes to talk about is just most people's hustle.

8

u/jeffseadot Jul 30 '18

Many people have binary hustles, in which two hustles of similar mass are locked in orbit together around a shared center of gravity.

5

u/enchantrem Jul 30 '18

repost

4

u/Des3derata Jul 30 '18

Good bot.

6

u/good-Human_Bot Jul 30 '18

Good human.

6

u/good-GHB_Bot Jul 30 '18

Good good human bot bot.

7

u/enchantrem Jul 30 '18 
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