Hillary Clinton Takes Aim At 'Gig Economy'

SonicSpike writes with an excerpt from Marketwatch that says at least one major candidate in the 2016 electoral fight has made the "sharing economy" epitomized by Uber and Airbnb a campaign issue. In a major campaign speech in New York City, the former secretary of state didn't mention the ride-sharing service by name. But it was pretty clear what sort of companies she was talking about when she got to how some Americans earn money. "Many Americans are making extra money renting out a spare room, designing websites, selling products they design themselves at home, or even driving their own car," she said at the New School. But that sort of work comes with its own problems, she said. "This 'on demand' or so-called 'gig economy' ... is raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future," Clinton added.

Comments

Why not?

[MikeRT]

Maybe you're OK with taking in peoples' wash and sewing for low pay, no benefits or sick days, and a friendly "fuck you" when you're too old to work, but most people are not.

And most people have no real job skills that the market values. So where does that leave us? With a bunch of entitled, low-skilled people who think that being an awesome burger flipper or retail clerk should entitle them to a 2000ft^2 apartment or home, an iPhone, cable package, nice car and full health care coverage. This is despite the fact that their input into the economy is barely a drop in the bucket compared to what they expect to come back to them.

Don't whine about human rights and dignity here. Mathematics doesn't give a shit what you think is the right thing to do. The health care demands coupled with what people want to do with their bodies in modern industrial societies alone is beyond the productive capacity of modern economics to provide. That's why health care is becoming unsustainable even in countries that use socialized medicine aside from Cuba (which has some structural advantages such as being able to use medical workers' family members as incentives to work efficiently)

For highly regulated e-commerce, vote Hillary

[zerosomething]

If you want lots of government controls over Uber, Etcy, and any other new idea for making money then vote for Hillary. If you don't, then don't vote for her. It's really that simple.