Did you ever lament the loss of something trendy? You were digging something, life was grand, then … poof? If you care what’s surfacing in my portents, it is the downfall of the gig economy that’s making old little me … terribly blue.
A fleet-footed happy job market, adored by hipsters everywhere, met its maker during the pandemic. Creative people have lost earnings and valuable professional relationships, all over creation. We stardust venturers must have limitless motility. Now what to do:
I want you to demand some of the “infrastructure cash,” the trillions, be whacked off the pile and distributed to artists, we who are having a chilly rotten time right now. The disposition of public revenue is never fair or all that beneficial in Pittsburgh. I recommend people at the grassroots level demand reform.
Last dictate, I hope everyone will revisit the book “The Rise of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida. When it first came out, it was definitive, and is relevant now to revitalizing the local gig economy. It’s about an economy that allows people to earn doing the things they enjoy doing. The guy, who taught at Carnegie Mellon, had some very good ideas, and I think they could be applied to the deep, piney slump we groovy swains and damsels are in.
You’re perfect. Over and out.
Bruce Reisner
Perry South