Gig work has a terrible reputation as being about being exploited and incapable of supporting an "adequate" lifestyle. But that's posited on this relatively recent idea that an "adequate" or "normal" lifestyle involves owning more cars than you have people in your household, living in some ginormous McMansion in the 'burbs where a car is essential because nothing is in walking distance and public transit is terrible or non-existant, etc.
That nonsense began with the US throwing up housing at breathtaking speed to meet a huge pent-up housing demand post World War II. At that time, it was a not unreasonable thing to do and the US as a whole bent a lot of its will and resources into making this happen for the people.
At the time, you have a relative high percentage of nuclear families with a breadwinner father, homemaker mother and 2.5 minor children. They were not the majority of the population of the US, but they were the ones for whom this kind of housing was designed because they were the primary buyers of this kind of housing.
In the decades since we invented the 'burbs, they have gotten crazy in a really dysfunctional way. The houses got bigger while the households (aka number of people living therein) shrank, yet a single family detached house remained our American ideal of a good home.
This led to suburban homes on steroids that looked and functioned nothing like the original walkable neighborhoods filled with 1200 square foot homes, neighborhood schools and a corner store that were where this all started.
The creation of tiny houses on wheels was a direct response to the fact that it has gotten zany and we have zoned out of existence the ability to create reasonably sized homes. The original creator of the idea found that such a tiny dwelling was illegal...unless you put it on wheels and called it a "mobile home."
Loophole! So that's what he did rather than "fight city hall."
It's at a point where looking for loopholes isn't really sufficient to our need for change. Everyone is enamored with tiny homes but in practice they solve our issues at the societal level and fail to work for some people who try them.
We kind of need to fight city hall and do something about the source of our problems, which is stuff I work on elsewhere. But this site is aimed more at the idea that employment is changing and that doesn't have to be a disaster if we also support the very real need for lifestyles to change as well.
Gig work doesn't have to be a poverty lifestyle of utter and complete misery. One of the details that helps make gig work viable as a means to support yourself is to get your housing costs under control so you aren't a prisoner of our McMansion-ified Suburban Hell.
This first video is one I really like. It's a small house, but there is a staircase up to the loft, not a steep ladder. I have joint issues and a fear of heights, etc. I hate ladders. I would be much more comfortable with a tiny house with stairs.
It's also got a very nice kitchen, which such homes tend to lack. It's got a lot of other nice details and this video was a real pleasure to watch.
This next video is all about doing that sort of thing. It's sort of a concept video in some sense and I think it's a bit silly and I don't know how much sense it would make to have these kinds of hidden beds as the default for everyday living and not a guest bed that gets occasional use.
I don't regret watching it and I appreciate the point made late in the video that in some cities a room in a house can cost like $200,000 or more. So if you can get a room to do double duty instead of buying a bigger home, the amount spent on double-duty furnishings is a pittance compared to the cost of a larger home.
She talks about doing things like paying cash for her house, which has since appreciated. So she doesn't have a mortgage to pay.
I'm not in a position to arrange that sort of thing. If you can work towards arranging it, the interest on a 30-year mortgage can add up to two or more times the price of the house in question.
So if you buy a house for $50,000 and get a 30-year mortgage, you can end up paying $150,000 or more total because the interest can be $100,000 or more over the life of the loan, depending on the interest rate.
If you can arrange to be housed inexpensively in a small space that works for you as a single person or part of a couple or part of a three-person household, gig work becomes much more viable than if you are trying to support our current conventional lifestyle with a huge house in the 'burbs, etc.
If your expenses are low and you don't need that much money, then gig work becomes a form of freedom to work as much as you want to -- or can, if you have physical limitations or other obstacles, like dependent chidren -- and stops being a big problem.
But you do have to work at arranging your life that way. It isn't currently our default norm for housing and other costs to be low such that ordinary people can routinely live on relatively little while working flexible hours.
That nonsense began with the US throwing up housing at breathtaking speed to meet a huge pent-up housing demand post World War II. At that time, it was a not unreasonable thing to do and the US as a whole bent a lot of its will and resources into making this happen for the people.
At the time, you have a relative high percentage of nuclear families with a breadwinner father, homemaker mother and 2.5 minor children. They were not the majority of the population of the US, but they were the ones for whom this kind of housing was designed because they were the primary buyers of this kind of housing.
In the decades since we invented the 'burbs, they have gotten crazy in a really dysfunctional way. The houses got bigger while the households (aka number of people living therein) shrank, yet a single family detached house remained our American ideal of a good home.
This led to suburban homes on steroids that looked and functioned nothing like the original walkable neighborhoods filled with 1200 square foot homes, neighborhood schools and a corner store that were where this all started.
The creation of tiny houses on wheels was a direct response to the fact that it has gotten zany and we have zoned out of existence the ability to create reasonably sized homes. The original creator of the idea found that such a tiny dwelling was illegal...unless you put it on wheels and called it a "mobile home."
Loophole! So that's what he did rather than "fight city hall."
It's at a point where looking for loopholes isn't really sufficient to our need for change. Everyone is enamored with tiny homes but in practice they solve our issues at the societal level and fail to work for some people who try them.
We kind of need to fight city hall and do something about the source of our problems, which is stuff I work on elsewhere. But this site is aimed more at the idea that employment is changing and that doesn't have to be a disaster if we also support the very real need for lifestyles to change as well.
Gig work doesn't have to be a poverty lifestyle of utter and complete misery. One of the details that helps make gig work viable as a means to support yourself is to get your housing costs under control so you aren't a prisoner of our McMansion-ified Suburban Hell.
This first video is one I really like. It's a small house, but there is a staircase up to the loft, not a steep ladder. I have joint issues and a fear of heights, etc. I hate ladders. I would be much more comfortable with a tiny house with stairs.
It's also got a very nice kitchen, which such homes tend to lack. It's got a lot of other nice details and this video was a real pleasure to watch.
Off-The-Grid Tiny House Is Pure Design Genius
This next video is all about doing that sort of thing. It's sort of a concept video in some sense and I think it's a bit silly and I don't know how much sense it would make to have these kinds of hidden beds as the default for everyday living and not a guest bed that gets occasional use.
I don't regret watching it and I appreciate the point made late in the video that in some cities a room in a house can cost like $200,000 or more. So if you can get a room to do double duty instead of buying a bigger home, the amount spent on double-duty furnishings is a pittance compared to the cost of a larger home.
Space saving furniture that transforms 1 room into 2 or 3
She talks about doing things like paying cash for her house, which has since appreciated. So she doesn't have a mortgage to pay.
I'm not in a position to arrange that sort of thing. If you can work towards arranging it, the interest on a 30-year mortgage can add up to two or more times the price of the house in question.
So if you buy a house for $50,000 and get a 30-year mortgage, you can end up paying $150,000 or more total because the interest can be $100,000 or more over the life of the loan, depending on the interest rate.
How I live happily below the poverty line
If you can arrange to be housed inexpensively in a small space that works for you as a single person or part of a couple or part of a three-person household, gig work becomes much more viable than if you are trying to support our current conventional lifestyle with a huge house in the 'burbs, etc.
If your expenses are low and you don't need that much money, then gig work becomes a form of freedom to work as much as you want to -- or can, if you have physical limitations or other obstacles, like dependent chidren -- and stops being a big problem.
But you do have to work at arranging your life that way. It isn't currently our default norm for housing and other costs to be low such that ordinary people can routinely live on relatively little while working flexible hours.