The last ten years or so has spawned both the gig economy and the creator economy, enabled by the market revolution in the 80's which laid the foundation for the 21st century's labour market where algorithms are in and unions are out. How has the focus on market efficiency over job security played out?
The market revolution of the 1980’s led to the development of the gig economy, when the efficiencies of the market replaced the security of the unionised workplace the inevitable conclusion would be workers selling their time one taxi fare at a time, competing with each other and having no guarantees. Karl Polanyi argued in The Great Transformation that a true free market for labour is impossible and striving for it will lead to social unrest and reactionary politics by eliminating security in the name of greater efficiency. The gig economy, and the harsh realities it brings workers, have been discussed plenty with some arguing that it brings flexibility and others arguing that it brings job insecurity. What hasn’t been discussed enough is the attention economy, and how it has brought the market to creative work.
With platforms like Youtube, Patreon, and Etsy having gained huge popularity over the last few years independent creative work is now a reality for many and a dream for many more. Just ten or fifteen years ago making videos of you playing video games, discussing tech or fashion news, or selling knitted hats were not viable ways to make a living but the internet and the creator/attention economy has changed that. Making money by providing entertainment is certainly not new, theatres have existed since ancient Greece, and TV had already provided the model for the Youtube economy; the concept of providing entertainment and thus generating attention in order to sell advertisements is the same across TV and Youtube. And just like TV online video has now developed a corporate lexicon. On TV you watch programmes whereas online you watch ‘content’, the nebulous term for any piece of online media which can be sponsored by an advertiser.
I brought up the gig economy to make a comparison I haven’t seen others bring up. There’s the superficial connection between ‘creators’ by which I mean people whose full time job is creating content, be that podcasts, videos, blog posts, or live streams, and gig workers as both groups have app based livelihoods. But there’s also a more interesting connection: both groups are outside the traditional organised labour market and thus are more exposed to market forces. I believe that the gig and creator economies are the purest markets for labour around, but unregulated markets don’t always produce the best results as crypto currencies clearly demonstrate. As much as the gig economy’s effects are complex, and there are good arguments for it, I think on balance it’s a step backwards for workers. The creator economy is more difficult to assess, on the one hand it makes it possible for more people to work in a creative field, but on the other hand it encourages formulaic work and discourages risk taking.
By making creative expression a business it radically changes the incentives. The creator economy is inexorably tied with some of the big platforms like Patreon and Youtube which due to how these platforms make money create certain rules creators are forced to follow, which aren’t always conducive to creativity. For example, these platforms like regularity and standard formats, so taking creative risks to focus on bigger or different projects could mean a direct hit to a creator’s income, not to mention the fact that making a hobby a job can take the fun out of it. The gig and the creator economy are great as supplementary sources of income, but if it’s coupled with a culture which expects and venerates being busy and working it can become more of a hindrance than a help to creative expression.
What I’m trying to say is that while the market is an appropriate tool in some situations it isn’t the best way to encourage creativity. Much like the gig economy the creator economy gives people more flexibility and the freedom to make a living in ways which weren’t available twenty years ago, while at the same creating a labour market where there are no guarantees and which exposes workers to the vagaries of apps and algorithms. As much as markets can create new products like ‘content’ and make existing ones like food delivery much cheaper it’s important to remember that the cost is the hollowing out of job security for those producing the goods or providing the services.
If you liked this post you can read a previous post about content moderation here, the war in Ukraine here, or the rest of my writings here. It'd mean a lot to me if you recommended the blog to a friend or coworker. Come back next Monday for a new post!
I've always been interested in politics, economics, and the interplay between. The blog is a place for me to explore different ideas and concepts relating to economics or politics, be that national or international. The goal for the blog is to make you think; to provide new perspectives.
Written by Karl Johansson
Cover photo by freestocks.org from Pexels, edited by Karl Johansson