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(We originally posted this on March 13, 2020. You can read more of our original ideas in our archive.)

Problem: The current structure of gig economy work (reverse bidding so consumers pay the lowest price to providers) is inhumane.

Solution: While working from home, I found myself skimming the “Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics.” There was a very interesting passage on gig economy work, I’ll include the whole passage but only that in bold is important for this idea:

Firms operating in the gig economy, like other businesses driven by internet technology, including Facebook, Amazon, and Google, generally benefit from network economies that reward scale. The result is a growing tend toward the forging of strong monopolies or oligopolies for these firms on both sides of the market, as both employers and service providers. This trend not only produces unfortunate economic inefficients but it can be high disempowering both for consumers and workers. The gig economy exacerbates workers’ sense of powerlessness, dooming them to a reverse auction in which they are constantly pressured to reduce their wage demands in order to outcompete rivals. It is hard to imagine successful collective action among independent contractors to demand better terms — especially when federal agencies are likely to view such actions as violations of antitrust laws. An important role of government throughout the twentieth century has been to countermand trends in business and technology that threaten the pay and status of workers, and that role is clearly important in the twenty-first century as well.

Rather than using a system that is dependent upon the reverse auction (i.e. bid lower and lower to get the price for the task), this company would function like HOA fees to pool a community’s monetary resources to provide the best services for the community at large. This membership-only gig-economy would provide better services at a cheaper price and provide a better result for both sides of the marketplace.

Monetization: Membership fees and percentage of gig economy jobs.

Contributed by: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas

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