"We consume the worklife of these people, which sure looks like employment, but we don't want to be held to account as their employer, so we're going to stop enforcing a standard for their rights and let the staffing firms compete in a race to the bottom"
Some people are going to point to regulation as the root of the problem and some to Google being exploitative, but ugh for the workers either way.
It's kind of funny in a sad way that the push to classify Uber and other "gig" workers as employees just fucked over everyone else.
I wish politicians would work to separate healthcare and retirement (401k) from employment rather then trying to force everyone into traditional employment.
> I wish politicians would work to separate healthcare and retirement (401k) from employment
Whenever your politicians feel like getting around to it, they'll be able to swipe the mechanisms from any of the jurisdictions that already do run healthcare and retirement over individuals rather than employers.
Except you see many of the same people staffing the boards of major companies, donating to politicians and contributing funds to think tanks that supply politicians with policy options.
Conceptually it's less helpful to keep politics and state institutions as distinct entities from the largest corporations as thinking of them as a single highly integrated system.
Some people are going to point to regulation as the root of the problem and some to Google being exploitative, but ugh for the workers either way.