It will never get better for gig economy. They are basically mturks until automation is ready. It sucks and it is sad, but the problems are bigger than any one company in the US and ultimately the responsibility of the government. Gig economy jobs were never meant to be people's bread and butter. Also if the price went up much people wouldn't pay for it anymore.
> Gig economy jobs were never meant to be people's bread and butter
This is the same talking point people use when arguing against raising wages for retail or fast food workers.
Reality shows that, like retail jobs, gig economy jobs are many Americans' bread and butter. Pandora's box has already been opened.
> Also if the price went up much people wouldn't pay for it anymore.
Doubt it. Investor money allows gig economy companies to undercut their competition. Five years ago I could get across town for $5 via Uber or Lyft. Now, the costs average to about $18 for the same trip. I doubt that my driver's compensation more than tripled during that time like my trip's cost did.
There's plenty of room for gig economy workers to increase their pay. Companies that take poverty-level pay for their workers as a given, like Uber, might not survive, but other players will pop up in that space to eat their lunch.
Why do so many people always default to "the government will fix it" instead of expecting people to take responsibility for themselves?
Everyone has the same 168 hours each week. Even with 12 hour days, 8 hours of sleep, 3 hours for meals, 7 days a week, that still leaves 21 hours to do things to change your circumstances. You only need to keep that up long enough to get into better circumstances that buy you more time.
I worked a few years under similar circumstances. It's totally doable, but you have to plan and have to budget your time.
You also need health, genuine opportunity and limited other drains on your energy - don't have anyone sick that needs you, and don't have any children. If you've already lost your health, or have someone relying on you as a carer, or are living somewhere without real opportunity (or perhaps very vulnerable to something that'll get you fired or deeper in inescapable debt - one car maintenance issue, one missed bus, one day off sick), well...
Also, you need the ability to plan and budget your time. These are real skills, and if you don't have them, nobody's going to teach you, so you're also out of luck there.
Fair enough. I'm as atheist as they come, but I honestly think things worked better when we left those cases you mentioned to the church instead of to government. At least the church operates on the model of "god helps those that help themselves" so there is a genuine effort from those providing relief to get people off the relief instead of letting them become dependent. When the government does it, they are just administering a narcotic, often indefinitely.
