In this opinion post ‘The Servant Economy‘, a few interesting discussion points are raised about the transformation of the service economy brought by the intermediation platforms such as Uber, delivery companies etc. Those are around since about a decade, so it might be time to take stock of the changes they brought.
Can we describe what happened by the “unkind summary […]: venture capitalists have subsidized the creation of platforms for low-paying work that deliver on-demand servant services to rich people, while subjecting all parties to increased surveillance“? There is some substance in this description, but I am not so sure it describes it all.
While of course those platforms have created a gig economy and no “real jobs” they have also provided substantial opportunities to many people, making them free agents instead of having them subject to the arbitrary will of bosses and employers. They have created more self-respect for more people. Some may be struggling with this, but I believe it is a fact.
The post also asks what is really the value added by those new services. “Looking at this incredible flurry of funding and activity, it’s worth asking: These companies have done so much—upended labor markets, changed industries, rewritten the definition of a job—and for what, exactly? Now you can do stuff that you could already do before, but you can do it with your phone“. And of course most of those companies are not profitable and rather consume huge amounts of capital. Still they do provide services that were difficult to access, and have transformed the personal transformation industry across many countries. I am using the global nature of those applications on quite regular basis to resolve local transportation issues when I am travelling.
I would thus not be so pessimistic about the changes brought by the new service platforms. They bring change, and I also believe that they have the potential to bring more self-respect of the independent agents that they bring together.
