And the appeal to the workers? Is it “Thank God I don’t have to demean myself like that guy” when they pick up the 9-5 corporate worker in his corporate uniform at 10pm to deliver him home from the office and have to listen to him apologizing on the phone all the way home for missing his kid’s birthday party? Or perhaps when the exhausted retail worker who just did a double shift falls asleep in the car on the way to their second job?
At least in theory, the appeal is that people can live their lives first and work to support their lives instead of the other way around. Our standard expectation is backwards to that - everything from having a car (to commute) to having insurance (to be healthy enough to work) to simply sleeping (to be on time) is primarily to support the role of being a worker.
The ‘gig economy’ as it currently is may not solve that very well but shows that there is a demand (among workers) for less-demeaning and less-exploitative work, and a lot of people are willing to accept the trade-offs (or don’t have much choice because they don’t fit the standard expectations).
