On: The gig economy is quietly undermining a century of worker protections

[jgust]

If the US ever manages to separate the safety net (healthcare, basic living needs covered, retirement) from full time employment I can see the argument for a gig economy working. You may actually see "the market" compete for employees in a way that benefits them instead of how full time employment works today. Given the fact that corporations are far more effective at passing laws that benefit them vs. the American people, I'm not going to hold my breath.

[hannasanarion → jgust]

This is a terrible way to look at it. If the labor pool is fractured into hundreds of millions of pieces, each acting in their own self-interest, how can you keep big businesses from exploiting them?

We'd just be back to the wild west of employment law pre-1880s, except without even the meager fallback of employment contracts, everyone would be at the mercy of the owners.

[jgust → hannasanarion]

There is a very real scenario for many workers that comes down to this:

a) continue working this horrible job and survive

b) quit working this horrible job and (lose healthcare/don't pay bill xyz/starve/insert outcome here)

My argument is that if survival isn't tied to gainful employment, the nature of work and the market will shift.