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Well in the case of the UK, in response to the model some of the well known new entrants use, just about every delivery company now forces their drivers to be self employed, zero hours. There have been countless reports of extreme abuses by companies.

What used to be a quite rare mode of employment that just a few chose, has become endemic, and seems like it's become near the default for the lowest paid fifth of our economy. That growth has been entirely in the last 15 years.

They do it because the choice has become that or unemployment. Unemployment that will probably sanction them for not accepting a zero hour contract, or a self-employed driving or labouring job.

In regards to mechanical turk, the linked study[0] has some answers for you:

For AMT US (roughly since they don't give out exact numbers): 8% - could not find other employment 10% -can only work from home 23% - prefer to work from home 1% - pay is better then other available jobs 43% - to complement pay from other jobs 4% - to ear money while going to school 3% - as a form of leisure 7% - enjoy it

For AMT india (roughly since they don't give out exact numbers): 4% - could not find other employment 12% -can only work from home 24% - prefer to work from home 8% - pay is better then other available jobs 25% - to complement pay from other jobs 5% - to ear money while going to school 2% - as a form of leisure 14% - enjoy it

[0] - http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcom...

Too much opacity in these markets, from the worker's side.

>why do they keep finding people to do it?

hunger

Actually only 4-8% claim "could not find other employment".

Source: see other commenter's reply, he looked it up.

> For the last 10 years, "if it gets bad enough, there will be a bail out" has become standard investment wisdom.

Plenty of private companies receive public funding disguised as defense costs and the output of their research goes to private investors. The transistor, GPS, Arpanet, etc ...

> Socialism for those who own, free markets for those who don't.

I get the point but the sentence is an oxymoron.

An oxymoron that seems to depict very well what the OP sees as the current state of affairs. You might not agree with the assessment, different matter

No, I don't disagree with the analysis. I'm referring to the literal use of the term:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism

"any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods "

I understand what the parent is trying to say and I agree with it, but "socialism only for the rich" is literally not socialism.

"I know it pays little and is repetitive. But my question with this kind of analysis is always: why do they keep finding people to do it?"

Why do you keep finding people to go into prostitution?

Forced prostitution and trafficking aside, I think quite literally because some people want to.

It's because some people have low IQ so they are not able to navigate through the meandering job. All they want is a simple job with a well defined task on which they can speed up and later achieve more objective output and not have to please a boss for subjective remark.

Actually from what the study says a sizable chunk does this because they prefer work from home or unable to work in an office. Some anecdotes are provided of people with sick parents or young children who for them taking a full time caretaker would be a net loss.

The reason they give is based on self evaluation.

People are particularly bad at self evaluation.

Keep in mind, most people don't know what their IQ is. And most don't consider themselves to posses less intelligence as they don't know what more intelligence feels like.

See this video for relationship between job expectation and IQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjs2gPa5sD0

From my casual observation, someone's IQ and intelligence doesn't seem to be a dominant factor beyond the point where it is considered a disability.

People with a level of intelligence that is measurably above average can still have difficulty finding and retaining jobs. There is a large group of people who can be expected to take whatever jobs they can find, out of necessity, regardless of their skills and aptitudes.

That comment is unfair, untrue, and like a statement from "1984" to justify removing health insurance and food stamps. "Those people are happy to have a simple, subsistence job, they don't need more."