Is the gig economy working? (opens in new tab)

Absolutely not. "Working" would require at least something to go well: well-compensated workers, high profits, technical innovation, a diversified market -- something! Instead we've got 1099 contractors making barely minimum wage, lawsuits instead of self-driving cars, local taxi companies being driven out of business. And to top it all off, the "unicorns" like Uber are not even profitable. It's just VCs spending their own money to wreck up existing markets instead of creating a viable business.

I feel like the gig economy would work better in a socialized healthcare system.

It's set up a bunch of middle men, but undercuts local businesses and leads to a lot of desperate and impoverished workers. When you create a just-in-time labor system, this creates a huge amount of stress for workers, as their hours and wages are unpredictable. This is fine if you don't need the money or are just supplementing a full-time income. But you can't live that existence if you have fixed bills and want to have a stable middle-class existence

I'll go with Betteridge's law of headlines: NO.