Post Carbon Fellow Janelle Orsi was quoted in this article on how to avoid worker exploitation in the ‘gig economy’.

From the article:

The only way for independent workers to really benefit from the platforms that use their labor, argues Janelle Orsi, a lawyer who specializes in sharing economy issues, is for them to own the platforms themselves, in what she calls a “freelancer-owned cooperative.” Since these platforms would by definition treat workers better, she thinks they could challenge companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Homejoy by essentially stealing their workforces. “The companies themselves have very few assets,” she says. “They don’t own cars, and they don’t own infrastructure, they don’t own hotels. They just own a software platform and a lot of clout. And if that clout goes away, then they just have software. And lots of people can create software.”