I don't see this argument made enough, especially on HN.
Between that and renting out a room on airbnb, It kept us from going homeless while I recovered enough to work again.
Turns out Disability insurance is nearly worthless for any complicated injuries.
If I am doing 8 hours Instacart, 8 hours Uber, 16 hours part-time work, and 16 hours part-time study towards my BS, doing a bit of Amazon Turk while waiting for gigs, who pays for my health insurance? And if I'm injured on the job, while having three ride sharing apps and one delivery app open, what happens to my worker's comp?
Once you dive into detail, employment law just doesn't work here. It's not a question of more right or less rights (I'm all for worker protections). It's a question of how we get there.
* I am glad to be forced to pay more to have Uber/Lyft drivers treated well. I think we should have worker's right protections.
* I am unwilling to pay more myself as a one-off (e.g. through tipping). It's a Prisoner's Dilemma. That's what regulations are for.
If everyone were like me, we'd end up exactly where we are. Do I think everyone is exactly like me? No. But I think it's a similar model.
That said, the concept of treating gig workers as employees is dumb as rocks. It's reusing in 1920 mechanism to accomplish a 2020 goal. My goal is for gig workers to have health care, vacations, and so on, not that they be employees; they're not. The gig workers I know appreciate being able to jump from Uber to Instacart to other life constraints. A half-dozen 1/12th time jobs is just a bad system.
And the medallion cab system was far more abusive of drivers than Uber/Lyft ever was. The power there sits with the medallion investors. The drivers were getting shafted.