#92 / The Gig Economy

I confess to skepticism about the "gig economy." My favorite columnist, Jon Carroll, seems skeptical, too. This "free agent" idea about how one relates to productive employment has a lot of downsides, it seems to me. Of course, the gig economy is good business if you happen to rent out workspaces for those involved, but I have been worried (sometimes on behalf of my own children) on what happens to everyone's ability to "make a living" and to find some sort of economic security in this ever more gig-filled world. Color me skeptical.

Despite my skepticism and trepidations, however, I will confess that a quest for "security" is not something that I generally believe should be our prime motivator in life. The pursuit of "national security," for instance, has surely gotten out of hand, delivering us up to an era of remote drone murders, with the President of the United States being the "murderer in chief." Plus, all that spying on everyone all the time! That's being done in the name of "national security," too. 

Maybe I am reconsidering. I am thinking back to theological seminary. I am thinking back to the Sermon on the Mount: 

Matthew 6:25-33 

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Image Credit: 

http://dashburst.com/fiverr-gig-economy-infographic/