There was a time between Enron folding in 2001 and me finding a position with an Enormous State University, when I was doing what could be called Gig Work. I was a temporary programmer officially employed by some outfit in Florida while I was writing code for a Houston corporation. Then I was doing remote coding for what was essentially a startup. And I qualified for unemployment which provided enough to pay the mortgage or buy food but not both. Other than that, I've been fortunate to be employed on a full-time basis since I graduated with a B.A. in 1973. Some of the jobs were menial, others "unskilled", but they paid the rent, bought food and beer, and paid down the school loans. One even made me move from Illinois to New York to Pennsylvania in the same year. But it also had benefits that paid for the birthing of my children. I can't imagine how we would have survived otherwise.
More relevant now than when it was first released. Readers may like Harris' book Kids These Days which digs deep into the environment in which kids are raised today. The focus is millennials and it was published in 2017, but I felt the analysis was even more relevant to the youth I work with now than my own childhood. It connects the many different ways boomers have changed the social conditions in which kids grow up to their effects. It flips the narrative of "millennials do X/why are millennials killing Y?" and reveals what kind of society millennials were born into and how it differs qualitatively from the conditions in which other generations were raised.
Damn, prompted by another post I just listened to Randy Newman's song " Sail away. Sail away. We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay."
Somehow that seems relevant to this post.
There was a time between Enron folding in 2001 and me finding a position with an Enormous State University, when I was doing what could be called Gig Work. I was a temporary programmer officially employed by some outfit in Florida while I was writing code for a Houston corporation. Then I was doing remote coding for what was essentially a startup. And I qualified for unemployment which provided enough to pay the mortgage or buy food but not both. Other than that, I've been fortunate to be employed on a full-time basis since I graduated with a B.A. in 1973. Some of the jobs were menial, others "unskilled", but they paid the rent, bought food and beer, and paid down the school loans. One even made me move from Illinois to New York to Pennsylvania in the same year. But it also had benefits that paid for the birthing of my children. I can't imagine how we would have survived otherwise.
So so glad that education in my district is not like Uber. Unless Uber provides family sick days and health insurance and I’m just not aware of it?
More relevant now than when it was first released. Readers may like Harris' book Kids These Days which digs deep into the environment in which kids are raised today. The focus is millennials and it was published in 2017, but I felt the analysis was even more relevant to the youth I work with now than my own childhood. It connects the many different ways boomers have changed the social conditions in which kids grow up to their effects. It flips the narrative of "millennials do X/why are millennials killing Y?" and reveals what kind of society millennials were born into and how it differs qualitatively from the conditions in which other generations were raised.