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Reader question: Please explain the term “gig economy”. My comments: Gig economy refers collectively to productivity generated by businesses involving people doing part-time jobs instead of full time. Freelance writers, on-demand taxi service drivers, weekend babysitters, fast-food restaurant jobs that pay by the hour, self-employed stand-up comedians performing from theater to theater, etc. All of these, I think, fall into the gig-economy category. Gig economy or “gig” economy. Gig, you see, originally refers to the traveling musician giving a performance here and there, in this theater today, that theater tomorrow or three days later, depending on whether he or she can find the opportunity, or engagement to work and get paid. So long as there is work, the gigging artist will be fed and, hopefully, be happy. One crucial characteristic of the artist making a living doing gigs is, you see, that such performing opportunities come and go. Now you have a job, now you don’t. And so people doing gigs don’t live on a monthly or weekly basis, as most people who draw regular salaries do. Instead, they live from a day to day basis. When job openings are few and far between, they’ll have lunch without knowing where money for dinner is going to come from. Yes, that happens, when bad comes to worse and worse comes to worst, so to speak. On the bright side, the good thing about gigging is that you get a lot of freedom in contrast to the full-time employee. As a freelancer, so long as you can afford it, you get to be your own boss, sort of. Whereas the full-time employee generally have to do what they’re told to do any time they’re told to do it, the freelancer gets to do jobs more or less on his or her own terms. They get to decide which jobs to take and when to take them. If they don’t feel like it, they can refuse to work. | 
