Is There Anything as Dispiriting as a Gig-Economy?

There’s this really great opportunity. It’s a ‘zero hours’ contract, so there’s no guarantee of steady earnings, it has no health care or retirement plan and it’s damned hard work unless you have access to an electric bike or scooter. Oh, and I almost forgot, it’s a notch below minimum wage.

Interested?

Probably not, but they’re everywhere, these gig-economy slaves because there finally comes a time when mere survival makes the choice for you.

Mel Stride is the UK Work and Pensions Secretary, a man who should know something about work and pensions

Or maybe not.

“Over-50s looking for work should consider delivering takeaways and other flexible jobs typically occupied by younger people,” Mel said.

Really? Just about the time your hips, knees and lower back are beginning to give way is, in Mel’s plunge into theoretical well-being, a perfect time to shoulder an off balance pack of four dinners and strike off down the already crowded city-center on a bicycle.

Quoted as “taking no lectures from La…