Raw Deal: How the “Uber Economy” and Naked Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers

Companies such as Uber, Airbnb, and TaskRabbit promote the idea that their employees enjoy a lifestyle of flexible hours and financial freedom. But Hill’s (Europe’s Promise) scathing critique of this vision will give readers pause before checking their smartphones for their next vacation rental or ride to the airport, as he develops the image of a well-educated Uber driver earning less than minimum wage while her bedroom is Airbnb’d to a tourist. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on delivering a solid critique of the labor practices in the sharing, or “share the crumbs,” economy, Hill throws in some extraneous material about robots replacing workers, black markets, and Keynesian economic policy. Sturm und Drang sits in for concise reasoning, as Hill decries “the mortal spiral that America is spinning around, like a marble rolling around a gravity well.” In such moments of lumbering polemic, the book obfuscates its more important thesis: the need for a new kind of labor movement that can meet the innovation of the sharing economy with an equally bold vision for fair, decent, and well-paying work and a portable social safety net that will benefit freelancers, temps, and “solopreneurs” everywhere. (Oct.)