I spent two weeks delivering for Uber Eats and made $4.40 per hour

"Gig/Contract economy" is the analogue of outsourcing, except for the cheap workers being drawn from local population. Its a logical consequence from corporations wanting to reduce wages and legal trickery to avoid work liabilities and benefits for the workers. Its exploitative and ruthless example of what "capitalism" becomes when law doesn't hold the punch, companies just figured out the necessary mix of legal and tech means to avoid the system being labeled as "work" and pay fair wages/expenses per worker. Expect this type of "work" to increase and subsume new sectors of economy as they figure out how to transform them into uber model.

"Cheap" is extremely misleading here. The gig economy has known data points where it has worked extremely well for a large number of people working within the rules defined by the companies who created these services. I heavily recommend Brad Stone's The Upstarts[1] as proof of this idea. There are Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts who did all types of incredible things because of the freedom that was a direct consequence of the gig economy. Sure, Uber Eats may be a raw deal, but let's not castigate a huge sweeping idea that has changed the face of humankind probably for the better.

[1]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HZFB3X0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...