Opinion | The Gig Economy Is Affecting Our Communities

I’ve spent nine years inside the gig economy. I write from home in rural West Virginia, a place where factory jobs disappeared long ago and this new way of working arrived like the only option left. I chase payments, explain to my two daughters why we need to wait for ice cream when a client pays late and wonder sometimes if anyone on the other end of the screen knows I’m a person at all.
Before this, I spent significant time in Mississippi. Not as a journalist, but as someone who paid attention. I saw communities where people knew eac