When I read that fact I assumed that a large percentage were people selling wares on Etsy, but still, I found it encouraging. I wonder if it says anything about a basic income, since a lot of those people who started businesses were probably getting extended supplemental unemployment as a backstop. I'm sure 2021/22 are going to see a lot of business failures (to the extent people stop selling on Etsy or whatever), but a percentage, and hopefully a statistically significant one, will stick around. (Also, $17/hr for a class is criminal at any level (and I include preschool in that) even if it includes prep time.)
Every WSJ or NYT or WaPo profile is someone who decided to make their grandma's jambalaya to sell as box lunches to people sick of cooking or artisanal toothpicks or deer scrotum coin pouches or whatever. I'm sure there are people out there doing mundane shit that isn't getting profiled but the overwhelming majority of it is "I'm not getting money for shit that I don't enjoy, I might as well not get money for shit that I do enjoy." Which, sure. I support that choice. deer scrotes for glory. But when they all go tango uniform the story will be "business conditions" not "Softbank tried to give $47b to a guy who marketed onesies with kneepads."
This speaks volumes The only downside is Generation Hustle is entirely too chummy about the scammers. They are not portrayed as criminals.