Sunday, March 22, 2020

The New Normal



For years now, the gig economy has been morphing into our new economic model. Martin Regg Cohn writes that the coronavirus has made gig workers of us all:

If you think these are tough times, spare a thought for those already living it, and likely to experience it for the rest of their working lives. Who are these people?
Today these people are us, cooped up at home. But in recent years, it has been a lot of “other” people — from the millennial children of boomers who have never known anything but the gig economy, to new immigrants lacking local experience, to older workers lacking retraining.
Bouncing from part-time job to contract job to temporary job. Waiting at home to get a gig offering free food samples to shoppers; or on call to deliver your Amazon parcels; or checking the part-time roster at Tim Hortons for an unscheduled shift.
The new world of work long predates the novel coronavirus. And long after the pandemic disappears, the gig economy will keep growing — and going viral — with all the uncertainty, insecurity and disruption you feel in your bones today.

And when the virus subsides, the gig economy will be stronger than ever. We need to develop policies to deal with it:

Now that we have your attention and rumination, consider the solution. Like infectious diseases, insecurity is nothing new — it keeps coming back in one form or another.
We all hope there will one day be a vaccine for the pandemic.
But we already have the antidote to precarity: security — income security.
Income security sounds like something abstract or complicated, but nothing could be more tangible and understandable: If you lose income, you make itI up with a guaranteed minimum; if you gain or regain income, you give up your supplement (it’s taxed back).
Consider the current patchwork of social welfare programs for those in need, in economic distress, or without employment income:
Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. There’s also EI, OAS, GIS and ODB — short for Employment Insurance, Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement and Ontario Drug Benefit.
There are many more, but you get the idea. Yet did you truly know — before the pandemic hit and emergency aid magically appeared from Ottawa — that less than one-third of unemployed Ontarians were eligible for jobless benefits?

And that's the problem. What is available to one-third of us should be available to all of us. That should be the new normal.

Image: SlidePlayer

12 comments:

the salamander said...

.. a fine read, thanks.. I parked a comment over at Mound's site.. will appear later I'd guess. Its kind of on your topic too. I'm smack on parked, right in the situation you describe.. and as described in the link

Owen Gray said...

One hopes this situation will concentrate our collective mind, sal. Our world has changed.

Lorne said...

I do hope against hope that the changes wrought by our current circumstances will make us more aware of everyone around us, Owen. I also hope that should neoliberal rhetoric return quickly after this crisis passes, it will be recognized for its shallowness, disingenuous nature and lack of humanity.

A basic income would be a good place to start to rebuild our economy and our society.

Owen Gray said...

I agree, Lorne. This situation should convince us all that a basic income is now an essential government program. Whether or not we will be wise enough to implement such a program, however, is an open question.

John B. said...

The libertarians have been attacking best practices in labour laws and writing new ones that don't respect power imbalances in the workplace for far too long. Maybe if enough of the slugs now or soon to be separated from their side-hustles take the time to contemplate the future in the context of the present, the libertarians will have had their day. It's really not a stretch. The building trades did it a hundred and thirty years ago. But then again, those guys didn't bear the annoying encumbrance of having a cell phone plastered to the side of their heads.

Owen Gray said...

The libertarians have always operated on the misbegotten notion that everyone sails his or her own boat, John -- and that there is enough ocean for everybody. They ignore the notion that we live in a world of limits and those limits impose social responsibilities.

The Disaffected Lib said...

The need for fundamental change is apparent to most of us. It's in mustering the will to demand/effect that change where we falter. Eventually some Higher-Purpose-Person will sound the "all clear" on this shit storm, we'll collapse our umbrellas, and get back to the status quo. Where is that spark of revolutionary discontent that conveys the "or else" message to those holding the reins of power?

Owen Gray said...

Good question, Mound. It's remarkable that we have not had a second storming of The Bastille.

Gaianicity said...

The Universal Basic Income could make a huge contribution to lowering our wealth and income defecit. Why should you support it when you have worked so hard for your income? Because you, your family, and society would gain from it too. The only people who possibly would not financially benefit--altough that is far from certain--would be the very rich. But, really, considering the boost in economic ectivity that would result in a UPI, they could also benefit in a more just and booming economy.

Owen Gray said...

Precisely, Gaiancity. Over the years, we have established various "economic stabilizers" -- pensions, baby bonus cheques, old age security payments. These inject money into the economy as basic levels and keep money circulating, rather than letting it coagulate at the top of the economic pyramid.

A GBI would the biggest -- and best -- economic stabilizer.

Trailblazer said...

A question of soul

I find the progressive blogs have the same contributors .

Are we so low in numbers?
Do so few care of our pressence and future?

TB

Owen Gray said...

In the Age of Neoliberalism, progressives are in the minority, TB. But it's worth remembering what Victor Hugo wrote: "There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come."