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Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

Free-market fanatics see this all as a good thing

I'm not a free-market fanatic. I'm just someone trying to survive under circumstances where the world makes that unnecessarily difficult.

Gig work has been an effective antidote to otherwise impossible problems.

I wish I had a better life. I don't. Your attitude and assumptions are part of the problem for people like me.

The economy you are championing is one that primarily works for cis het white males. Women, people of color and other minorities were typically marginalized.

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The only reason you are in that position in the first place is because you have few rights in the society you live in.

If not for that your situation would be much better. The United States is singularly bad at protecting basic rights for people who are less than lucky in life, the gig economy makes this worse, not better because it now seems like there is a solution: let those at the bottom of the societal ladder fight over scraps in a race to the bottom.

Of course from your position scraps are better than nothing but there are much better options available too. But they all start with a society where 'winner takes all' is not the default.

Unfortunately the export of the gig economy to parts of the world where the social safety net is working just fine has the effect of slowly eroding that safety net because there is less of a perceived need for one.

The only reason you are in that position in the first place is because you have few rights in the society you live in.

No, that is not the only reason I am in this position by any stretch of the imagination whatsoever.

That strikes me as true but sort of beside the point jacquesm was making. If you disagree, though, I'd like to hear your reasoning (really).

He's awfully opinionated about my country and my life without really knowing either topic well. I've spoken with him before. He assumes free medical care would solve my problems. He assumes I have huge medical bills because I'm American.

It's not true. I've basically been a military dependent my entire life. I've always had free or nearly free medical care. It's part of why I'm alive at all.

There are a lot of other issues with his assertions that I wouldn't know where to begin to address and trying to address them at all looks to me like social suicide for various reasons.

So thank you for the sincere and respectful inquiry, but it isn't likely to go anywhere good to try to answer it in earnest in a substantial manner.

Fair enough :). Thanks for your answer.

> He's awfully opinionated about my country and my life without really knowing either topic well.

I've lived on the US/Canadian border for 7 years and know the United States quite well, probably I have more friends there than I do here in Europe.

As for your life, you've spent years on HN educating everybody here on it in minute detail so if you want to make the case that I don't know anything about it then I suggest you read back your own comments and associated blog posts. I know more about your life than I know about my sister's.

> He assumes I have huge medical bills because I'm American.

My comment had nothing to do with your medical bills or lack thereof, and - given your comments to date - I would rather assume that they are low.

So to me it looks like the assumptions are all on your end.

On another note it is rather rude to answer to a comment thread and then to berate an earnest reply in this way.

I don't think I'm the one being rude here. But you and I have a long history of miscommunication and this is probably not the way to hash it out.

I just didn't want to be silenced on the topic because it happened to be you saying it. I honestly didn't expect you to reply to me at all.

FWIW: you're one of my favorite commenters on HN and you're in the list of my comment-updates-telegram-bot. I also find there's an odd tension at times in DoreenMichele's comments when it comes to the 'free market'.

That said, I really wish you'd keep out of these kinds of spats, and/or have the wisdom to know what might trigger or exacerbate them. I could see this one coming a mile away the moment I saw 'jacquesm' replying to 'doreenmichele'. Even if she 'started it'.

And that said, my apologies for inserting myself in this conversation :). I wish you both the best, hope you can find common ground, and enjoy your contributions here a ton!

The erosion of worker rights by reclassification is not a panacea to discrimination. Removing these protections just makes it objectively worse for every employee.

You clearly seem to disagree but you haven't explained why not having rights has been an antidote to deep-seated social issues. I see no causation.

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