The Future of Work Might Not Be So Bleak (bloomberg.com)

From a report, shared by readers: That said, technology can also favor standard salaried employment. The economists George Baker and Thomas Hubbard, for example, have noted how onboard computers could change U.S. trucking. By monitoring behavior, they would solve a moral hazard problem: Drivers have little incentive to be as careful with company trucks as they would with their own. As a result, more drivers could become employees of companies that buy and maintain fleets, rather than going it alone. They wouldn't have to invest in their own vehicles, which makes them vulnerable to recessions by putting their savings in the same sector as their labor; and they wouldn't be out of pocket and out of work when their trucks broke down. More generally, conventional jobs have a lot of advantages. First, a single worker or group of workers might lack the capital needed to set up a business, or prefer to avoid the stress and risk of running one (consider doctors or dentists who choose to be employees of a medical clinic). Second, business owners might not want their employees to have other bosses -- particularly if the work involves confidential information or team projects that require undivided time and attention. Third, reputations based on ratings might not be reliable: The economist Diane Coyle has shown that the quality of individual consultants can be hard to monitor, at least immediately, whereas a traditional consultancy may be more efficient at "guaranteeing" quality. In short, I believe that salaried employment will not disappear, although it might become less prevalent over time.

Comments

You don't get rich working for someone else

[xtal]

The tax system is biased towards those who risk capital.

This will remove one of the only and best options for upward class mobility. This is a real problem when combined with the joke standards for public STEM education, the other real way out/up.

Interesting times.

Re:Wut?

[cayenne8]

The reality is, if companies want to move to the gig economy, they should fully accept and understand that the people they hire for small jobs will never give a fuck about them.

If you expect such people to vigorously look out for your interests you're going to be disappointed. The more employers don't give a fuck about us, the less we give a fuck about them.

You seem to act like this is something "new"??

I've been in the workforce for a few decades now, and the W2 job by a company that gave loyalty to its employees was long gone before I started working.

There has been nothing like company loyalty to employees for ages now, with VERY very few exceptions.

Perhaps some employees have been loyal on the mistaken notion that loyalty would be returned to me...but it really hasn't been the case. All employees have been expendable for a long time now.

That's why as soon as I could, I got into contracting.

I figure if you have as much loyalty from your employer as a contractor, have the job security of a contractor ...

Then you might as well get the BILL RATE of a contractor, you know?

Capitalism and Corporatism OUT OF CONTROL

[Rick Schumann]

That's the hell we're living in currently, and it has to STOP.