I decided to work with the Yes on Prop 22 campaign because I am a fan of the gig economy. Gigs make sense. They make it possible for people to earn extra money, and work on a schedule and in a way, that works for them.
Gigs also make my life a lot easier. Any excuse not to make dinner…
Prop 22 supports my way of life – keeping me safe and sane
Prior to Covid, I traveled near constantly for work and for pleasure. Conferences in far flung cities, visiting my daughter at college in London, and vacations in Europe. I almost can’t imagine what my travel life was before services like Uber and Lyft existed. Show up exhausted in a foreign airport and haggle with a shared shuttle service? No thanks! Go out to dinner at a restaurant in hellandgone and then walk the unfamiliar streets trying to hail a cab? Nope! Not anymore. How did we live like that prior to our apps?
Pretty much every city that I have been to in the last four years is a city where I can order up a car with an app and feel secure that I will be picked up and taken to my destination safely. Whether it’s Stockholm, or Nola, I’m good.
It’s not just rides. It’s also dinner in my hotel room when I’ve arrived after 9pm, or I’m too tired to dine out after a day of presentations. App services have scored me gluten free groceries delivered to my urban Airbnb. And I’ll never forget the chicken soup left on my doorstep when I caught a cold in Helsinki.
Prop 22 supports our family
Last week my daughter headed back to college. Her luggage was very heavy so we made sure she wouldn’t have to schlep it on the underground when she arrived… Instead she planned to take an uber directly to her place. When she got there, she used another app to order up the groceries she needed to sustain her in quarantine for the next two weeks.
It would be impossibly for her to quarantine without the use of these apps.
Now more than ever, we need the apps and services that we have come to rely on.
Lately I haven’t been going anywhere. I’m staying home to keep myself and my family safe from Covid. This means relying on app services like Instacart and Postmates more than ever. Thanks to Instacart my groceries are usually here in less than two hours without my needing to walk the aisles of a store with a compromised immune system. I can get groceries and hot food delivered to my elderly mom as well. Last time I logged into Instacart, the app told me I have saved over 30 hours of grocery shopping, by shopping this way. That’s a big productivity win for me.
Make more friends with Prop 22?
One more reason I love the Gig economy. We love to chat with our drivers and delivery folks, everywhere we go. I’ve made friends with single moms putting their kids through school, immigrants starting a new life, and retirees staying busy while earning fun money. Since we’ve been grounded with Covid, more of my peers have become drivers. When Covid cuts led to income loss, several of my friends were happy they could still make ends meet with part time jobs driving or shopping. These opportunities and services have kept us all from unraveling in trying times.
Prop 22 makes our communities safer, stronger, and wealthier protecting jobs, increasing pay, increasing safety, and adding healthcare benefits.
Drivers overwhelmingly want to keep control of their hours and Prop 22 protects that.
- The coalition is purple, NAACP chapters endorse 22 as well as sheriffs.
- Prop 22 adds continuous background checks of drivers
- Prop 22 ensures guaranteed hourly earnings
- Prop 22 includes funding for health benefits for drivers who work at least 15 hours per week
Check out what drivers have to say about Prop 22, in their own words
Learn more about voting YES on 22 and share your stories here:
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Finally, I am supporting Yes on Prop22 because I’m a believer in people making their own opportunities, not waiting for them. Opportunity doesn’t knock so often these days. But it does click.
Thank you for this post. The economy is so dreadful right now I don’t know what I d’do if college students couldn’t deliver with door dash or grub hub during the weird hours we aren’t busy. How do you make food delivery an eight hour shift when people only want deliveries at meal time?