Why the 'gig economy' is a scam

From an ongoing thread:

Gig economy work is a way to shift all the risks associated with being an employer onto your workforce, while hoarding all of the benefits that independent contractors customarily enjoy. For employers, it's a disposable workforce whom you owe nothing to.

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— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) September 1, 2020

You see: Amazon Flex drivers are not employees, they're contractors. Their boss is an app that decides, from moment to moment, whether they will get work and how much they'll get paid for it. The app uses a secret mix of factors to make these determinations.

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— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) September 1, 2020

In the immortal words of @GreatDismal: "Night City was like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb
permanently on the fast-forward button."

(this is your periodic reminder that cyberpunk was a warning, not a suggestion)

9/

— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) September 1, 2020

So: in the Chicago suburbs, desperate Amazon Flex drivers, competing with one another for the unknown sums on offer for making deliveries, stash phones in the branches of trees close to Whole Foods and other Amazon distribution points.

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— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) September 1, 2020

There is more in the rest of the thread, including a discussion of "chickenization" which is "named for the hyperconcentrated poultry industry: chicken farmers are notionally independent contractors, but they have no independence."