A few comments ... "the gig economy" is a return to piecemeal work and the end result of companies canceling even an informal contract with workers--some job security, benefits, 401k etc. These gig workers--which I count myself part of-- have some control over their arrangement. Also the "wage slave" jobs were made tolerable through unions that forced companies to agree to more than just minimum pay. Fortunately, unions are coming back at places like Starbucks and especially Amazon where workers really were closer to being economic slaves with every part of their job monitored. The monitoring of workers was not just a feature of American business. Factory workers, say, in Germany and the UK in the earlier part of the last century would have also experienced a very hierarchical environment.