LET’S WELCOME THE GIG ECONOMY

LET’S WELCOME THE GIG ECONOMY

My dear countrymen: Perhaps many of you have already heard of the gig economy? The more vulgar term for it is “racket”, as in “what is your racket now”?  Well, the term “racket” as used here is just a figure of speech, because for the most part, most of these are not illegal. Most of these are just innovative and creative ways of making an extra buck, to meet one’s daily needs, one way or the other. For some, a gig or doing many gigs is their main way of earning a living, meaning that it is not just a sideline to them.

What is the gig economy and how does it work? When I was renovating my house some years ago, I asked one of the workers who was painting my walls if he was really a painter. He said no, explaining that he just knows how to paint. After a while, I saw the same workers fixing an electrical socket, but I no longer asked him if he was an electrician or not. I think that these “casual workers” have a work for it, they say that they are just “pa-extra extra”.

There is this tricycle driver in my village who only drives occasionally. The last time I saw him, I asked him why he does not drive all the time. He explained that he is not a regular driver because he is just “pa-extra extra”, meaning that he could only drive whenever the regular driver is absent, meaning that he is only “on call”. Nonetheless, he is someone whom we could call an “accredited” driver.

Also in our village, we have someone who we could call an “exercise coach”, for lack of a better term, but I think you know what I mean. But other than his exercise lessons, this coach gives me a free therapeutic massage which really relieves my body pains. My son tells me that this coach knows what he is doing, except that he does not have the money to spend to get certified. What a waste, because he could really earn more money if he could get certified.

Technically speaking, all of these “gig economy” workers could be considered as “self-employed”. While some of them could be considered as “entrepreneurs”, most of them do not own their own business, and they just move from one gig to another. What can the government do to help them? Which government agency could help them? Is it PESO at the local level? Or DOLE at the national level?

As a writer, I could always identify many social problems, but I could not always find the solutions to these problems. Often, I am left with questions like these that I could not answer on my own. If you have some ideas about how to solve this problem, please let me know. Or perhaps you might know of a government agency or an LGU that is already doing something about this problem, please let me know. Very truly yours, IKE SENERES/11-08-2024

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