The gig economy of the 18th Century
The worker protections we have that the gig economy strips employees of are actually really important.<p>The protections we have in place e.g. 40 hours work week, time off (4+ weeks&#x2F;year in developed countries), termination periods, redundancy pay etc enable a market place where individuals employees can compete fairly with one another. Without these restrictions we open up a fast race to the bottom, where only those who are willing to work multiple jobs (gigs), extreme working hours at minimal pay can compete (see freelance websites and other &quot;gig&quot; platforms for examples).<p>The gig economy allows some unique companies (e.g. Uber, Deliveroo) to operate right now when they are backed with massive VC funds and operate at a loss - but we can&#x27;t all expect to have a personal driver + food on delivery every day, without either seeing massive technology efficiency gains (which aren&#x27;t there yet, e.g. drone delivery, self driving cars etc.) or alternatively we deregulate and push some people into poverty (gig economy).