"The '1099 Workforce'"

"That ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt hangs over all of Hill's warnings about the 'economic singularity.' For him, it offers a perfect contrast to the trends today: good, accessible jobs with benefits (and not an app in sight). The original promise of the freelance economy seemed to break out of this old-fashioned way of doing things. What if instead of answering to a boss as an office drone, you could be your own boss and help companies all around the country from your home office? What if instead of working at your grueling factory job, people could buy your products from you directly? But as Hill explains, these original assumptions were based on the most talented and entrepreneurial workers setting out on their own. Instead, it's low-income workers with little other choice who are being hired as contractors, or plying their trade for as little as possible for a service like Uber or TaskRabbit. Rather than offering freedom and flexibility, the commitment-free schedule is instead a curse, requiring workers to head to jobs on short notice or risk wasting an hour or two with no pay.
"So, Hill says, we need a new New Deal that can adjust to modern economic realities while preserving the goals of the original series of laws and projects."                     

Matt Connolly in the Washington Monthly reviews Steven Hill's Raw Deal: How the “Uber Economy” and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers.