So I was talking to a friend of mine recently, we're both commiserating about how quality employment for low wage workers is pretty much a thing of the past. They told me a horror story of a conversation they had with their boss recently because they weren't getting enough hours and they were basically being forced to plead for what amounts to scraps as far as shifts on the schedule were concerned. Their boss straight up told them that they weren't going to get any more hours and if they wanted to find another job or a second job, more power to them. But since no one is really hiring right now, if they needed income, something like Uber or Grub Hub or Shipt was really their best bet at shoring up their income. They were warned though, that if they got a second job or started an Uber hustle and it started to conflict with their hours at that job? They can pretty much kiss it goodbye. It's like reality is becoming a parody of itself.

Honestly, I don't know how people in large cities like L.A., New York, Chicago, etc. get by "working for" Uber and such. Even less so for smaller cities where there are probably more workers than demand. Cost of living and inadequate pay aside, what I can't possibly begin to imagine is the damage done to a person's heart and soul and sense of self, having to answer to notifications on a device, kept in their pocket, trying to game a system that's designed to defeat them, in order to survive.

Don't go looking for dignity in all of this, it isn't there. It's been stolen from us and the people behind these companies know that they need to make life hard for us, because the more time we spend fighting just to get by, the less time we spend fighting to try and regain what we've lost, piece by piece, to companies that care more about bottom lines and shareholder value than they do about their roles in contributing to a healthy, functioning society.