The Gig Economy Must Die

Pretty soon the participants in this system will realize they are being taken for a ride. As the hose of capital from VC investors is switched off these services will no longer be subsidized and the price will rise for users.

On the other side of this equation are the service providers themselves, the drivers, property owners and people whose excess capacity enabled the sharing economy to thrive and become the easy to access behemoth we love.

The problem is that it has only led to greater exploitation, not the prosperity it promises so grandiosely. Rather than becoming partners who shared in the upside of the success, we are realizing that we are simply lining the pockets of the few who profit from our participation. Of course, this is the typical cycle of all startups, but what’s different here was the implicit, insidious nature of the promise that we are in this together as partners. Platforms that we participate on take a negligible risk while receiving maximum rewards and sharing little with the people — participants and consumers — who elevated them.

That’s not to say that people haven’t seen tremendous benefits. The stories of people able to remain in their homes because they were able to rent out a spare bedroom a few days a month show that there is a significant reason to participate, but the stories of drivers working for below minimum wage…