Make Detroit Build Again
Laptop jobs and gig work aren’t the future
She has no job, but she’s never not working.
She works at call centers. She works in food delivery. She tries her hand as an influencer between deliveries, making sure to get the selfie and the food in the same shot. People love it when you get both in the same shot.
Her phone pings constantly, but never with good news. She—let’s call her Rosie—is gigging herself to death.
She is crushed by the weight of expectation. Everyone in her phone wants something from her. Just about the only thing she doesn’t do to pay her bills is start an OnlyFans, to her great credit.
Finally, she’s making a drop-off at a factory, just as some women are leaving. She asks them, “What do you do?” This opens the door to a new life.
Inside the factory, they work jobs. Not gigs. Inside the factory, they work on a contract, not on tipped wages. The indignity of the gig economy pales in comparison to the dignity of stable work.
The 90-second ad I’m describing, which has made the rounds on Twitter, points us to a better way. The Detroit way.
I saw my grandfather, Roosevelt Hunter, in the journey of young Rosie.
After many years of making do in Louisiana, working the gigs of his time, he was ready for a real job. Henry Ford had more of them than anyone. So grandpa made the great migration north to Michigan.
Steady work turns a job into a livelihood. For generations, so many people found that work in auto factories. This was when Michigan was at its strongest and best.
