“[The] ‘on demand’ or so-called ‘gig economy’ is creating exciting opportunities and unleashing innovation, but it’s also raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future” – Hillary Clinton
“Hillary Clinton’s Uber Speech Belongs in 1930s America” – National Review
Had Hillary Clinton issued her warning about the “gig economy” just one week earlier, this would be a very different article.
There’s a lot to hate about Uber, but by focussing just on the gig economy aspect of the company, Clinton has presented herself as the enemy of the entire sharing economy.
That doesn’t fly amongst young voters and, more importantly, it isn’t fair: For every company like Uber that uses the “just contractors” argument to screw workers and abdicate responsibility for driver behavior, there is another which allows millions of underpaid, underemployed workers to start earning a living wage. It’s a nuanced debate, and one that Clinton has entirely fluffed.
If this were a week ago, I’d probably write — as other commentators have — that this is an easy win for Jeb! Bush.
But that was before I went to FreedomFest, and encountered a group of young voters for whom Uber doesn’t represent the bleeding edge of the cult of disruption, but rather a coddling, lily-livered first step.…
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