The “gig economy” implies that technology has created new opportunities to work two jobs (“The gig economy,” Star-Advertiser, Insight, Sept. 2).

The reality, however, exposes the practice in which entry-level workers cannot find full-time positions, because full-time positions include health care, retirement, worker’s compensation and other benefits. A gig job is not an alternative that brings freelance independence. Conversely, it serves as a means to earn some extra cash to buy benefits denied to part-timers.

Welcome to GIG Hawaii, the land where a service economy does not support even the basic needs of its workers.

Ask for a single-payer medical care system; a “plantation economy” tourist industry, built on trust lands, that does provide housing for its employees; and a public education system that facilitates and supports thinking through inquiry and relies on Google to supply the knowledge to answer multiple-choice examinations and other general-knowledge questions.

Indifferent political institutions that presume they serve the common good (or what’s left of it) merely restrain citizens and do not enhance them.

Robert Tellander

Waikiki

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