All know that work has morphed since the start of the pandemic, but work was changing long before this historic period. The rise of the gig economy and platforms which facilitate it is an important shift in the lifestyle of work and employment. This shift is permanent for the future, and it favors freedom and the worker.
Workers now have more options than ever before for earning a wage.
First of all, there are the many online services, such as Coursera and Uber, which allow workers to apply their trade in many ways and markets. More options for work means more freedom to choose for the worker. More freedom to choose translates into more facility for workers to find the industries and jobs which best suit them and their prosperity. Success has many fathers, and often one of them is trial and error. The economic opportunities available through the gig economy enable workers to put their activity through this vortex. Success, in turn, translates to the freedom and mobility that wealth creates.
There are also a number of online training services which enable workers to develop their skills and take on new ones for the service of profit. Online education and training services are often flexible, which also benefits the worker as he or she is able to adapt them to his or her circumstances. At the same time, employers benefit from a greater supply of skilled workers and have more freedom to choose who to hire.
It has long been a global age, perhaps since the founding of the Dutch East India company in 1602. Perhaps one can argue that the finding of ancient Roman trading posts in London and the ancient silk road point to the birth of the global age at the beginning of recorded history, or before. Technology has fostered global commerce since this time, and its acceleration through the internet has continued this trend. This enables not only companies but also individual workers to access global markets. Online platforms make this process easier than ever before and cut down on the amount of capital needed to access foreign markets.
An eternal political problem is economic inequalities which create class strife due to a lack of shared prosperity and opportunity. America has been the place where upward mobility and economic opportunity occur frequently due to the ease of business and employment. Now, the online gig economy furthers this even more, and one could make a case that apps like Uber and Coursera, and many others, foster equality, opportunity, and liberty more efficiently than legal or political means, provided that people are willing to do two things: learn and work.
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