Posted on 01/12/2016 11:19:49 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Career --> Job --> Gig
Every paid job I’ve ever had has been a ‘gig’. I don’t see what’s wrong with non-traditional work being available for people who want it. Some of us prefer it.
Back to the Future, it's the way the world worked for Centuries.
That was the era when the “real job” — permanent, well-paid and with benefits — was enjoying its moment in the American sun, thanks to the New Deal programs, strong unions and the postwar boom. So to turn away from that security and comfort in search of something more meaningful seemed a daring and romantic gesture. When you read Kerouac now, it still does.
Gosh, this guy really drank the Commie Kool Aid.
Yep. All those bennies along with gov’t mandates got too expensive - not only for business, but for gov’t itself. The Public Employment Retirement Systems are all changing from guaranteed retirement pay to something approaching a 401k. At least that’s what happened here in OR.
So now we live with a new reality
Yep. This is the wave of the future. Some of us do it now, from low-paying MTurk tasks to higher-paying-but-temporary “per diem” jobs. If none of those are available, then search the trash heaps for scrap metal to sell. Welcome to the New America.
I wouldn’t mind living in a really nice RV traveling from gig to gig so to speak. But try to live without a permanent address, government doesn’t like that very much. They have a hard time taxing moving targets.
All that has changed because rising wages and falling unemployment is now consider a crises by the Establishment and its only solution it to flood the US labor market with culturally incompatible wage slaves from really awful places, most of them hate America.
"Watch the police and the taxman miss me, I'm Mobile!"
It should of course be an option for those who want to be self-employed and have the independence to not have to be tied to one job for decades.
The problem comes when most people have to live in that lifestyle. There can't be stability in society if a majority of people don't have roots somewhere. What happens to the kids when we become a nation of gypsies? They need stability in their formative years. What happens when most senior citizens never had the chance throughout their lives to prepare for retirement?
Know a quality consultant who does exactly that when he takes a ‘gig’. His wife stays home in Missouri but sometimes ‘comes to visit’ for a bit if the location is especially nice.
Most of his work runs 1-3 months so he said it’s perfect for him.
Would it be even only theoretically possible for a person without any particular qualifications or experience - i.e., without a pocket full of training certificates, etc. - to just "walk in" from the street and get a gig as a part-time brakeman for the Southern Pacific in California today?
Anyone have an idea?
Regards,
Of Course your wonderful life is based in those traditional values.
Man, Woman, Lots of Kids, Stay and home Mom etc etc.
I became a contract laborer, working in construction/remodeling for myself in 2003 because I was fed up with being a workers comp case manager-I have no regrets, even though the obamaeconomy has made it necessary to squeeze every dime and live in a dump right now-that is just the way it is, but it will get better.
But out here, many of those working for themselves are not doing it by choice-it is because jobs they used to commute back and forth to at companies in the city are long gone. We are becoming a semi-isolated rural economy, working mostly for our neighbors-and increasingly, we take pay in barter/trade if cash is short-and that may prove to be a good thing in the future...
There will be severe blowback to this development.
Trump is but one manifestation of it.
All fine and good until the millennial gigsters want to retire. Then not only will they want their college debts paid for they’ll also want their retirement (having no social security or pension or 401k) paid for.
-PJ
Am I the only one who, having read only the headline, thought the article was about Steve Jobs and gigabytes?
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