If you read the theories or Karl Marx, his theories are pretty accurate in terms of explaining why people work "gig jobs" even though worker protections are basically non-existent. Marx basically described a class of people as being the "industrial reserve army of the unemployed"...obviously these are people who are either unemployed or unemployed. For these people, they are basically going to fight for whatever job they can get because having a terrible job is better than no job at all. Thus, as long as this class exists, people will work terrible jobs without much ability to fight back. It is also important to note that the industrial reserve army of the unemployed exists for each relevant skill set. For obvious hard to get skillets....the reserve army is basically non-existent. It also explains why all of these "gig economy" type startups almost entirely focus on services that are low-skill by nature.