In the Gig Economy, Laborers Are Struggling to Keep Up; White Nationalists Win in Germany–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Sept. 7, 2026

Indy Digest: Sept. 7, 2026

According to the Department of Labor, “Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. The holiday is rooted in the late 19th century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.”

Today, workers are struggling more than they have in decades. Wealth inequality is out of control—the top 1% of U.S. households owned 31.7% of U.S. wealth as of last year, according to the Federal Reserve; that’s the highest share since the Federal Reserve began tracking this data in 1989.

There’s also been a rise in the so-called “gig economy”—people who don’t have a conventional job, but do things like freelance, or drive Lyft/Uber, or deliver for one of the food apps.

For some folks, these gigs are “side hustles,” used to make extra cash here and there. But an increasing number of Americans are depending on these gigs to make a living—and that’s not going so well.

Jacob Lederman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Michigan Flint, recently penned a piece for The Conversation headlined “The typical gig worker is changing—and struggling more than ever to make ends meet.” The lede:

The next time you call an Uber ride or order food delivery with an app, there’s a good chance that the gig worker you meet is getting government benefits.

In 2025, companies such as DoorDash, Lyft and Uber had the most workers receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits among all major employers, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. This marks a major shift from 2020, when an earlier GAO survey found that Walmart and McDonald’s took the top spots for SNAP recipients.

That finding may appear surprising to most Americans, who usually see platform-based work as a side hustle to earn extra cash. In fact, these jobs are becoming more essential as a primary source of income, even as they fail to cover basic food and medical expenses for gig workers.

Later in the piece, Lederman writes:

Gig work may be supplemental, but it isn’t always optional. With nearly half of all Americans saying they struggle to make ends meet, gig work is likely to increase as a source of financial survival.

At the same time, these platforms aren’t substituting for traditional employment. We found that relatively few gig workers – only 6% – reduced hours or left another job to pursue other gig work.

And when gig work becomes a necessary source of income, the lack of benefits—from health insurance to disability insurance to workers’ compensation—reflects a shift in who is turning to the safety net. If major platforms won’t pay a living wage or provide adequate benefits on the grounds that it’s the price of “flexibility,” government programs often fill the gap.

In other words, taxpayers are helping foot the bill to compensate gig workers.

This Labor Day, I’d like to tip my figurative hat to all workers—but especially the gig-economy workers who are working their butts off to make ends meet.

Oh, and the next time you hire a gig worker—for a ride, or a meal delivery, or anything else—be kind, and tip well.

Schedule Note

The next scheduled Indy Digest will arrive in your inbox on Friday, a day later than usual.

I’ll be at a journalism conference on Wednesday and Thursday—and it’s no fun to write and assemble a newsletter in between conference sessions! So we’ll return to your inbox at the end of the work week.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Let’s see how things are going in Germany, shall we? The Guardian (U.K.) reports: “Mainstream politicians around Europe have expressed alarm after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) swept to a historic state election victory in Germany, while nationalist figures cheered the result as a mandate for change. While falling just short of an absolute majority, the AfD surged into first place in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on Sunday, exit polls ⁠showed, putting the far right within reach of power at ‌the state level for ‌the first time since the second world war. … Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, described the election result as ‘terrible news … because it concerns a political force that is antithetical to liberal and western values.’ The reaction was not limited to Europe. Elon Musk congratulated the far-right party on its election victory with a ‘Well done!’ on his social media platform X, prompting Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, to thank the nativist US tech billionaire for his support.” Eeeeek.

• OK, so let’s now see how things are going at Fox News. The New York Times (gift link) reports: “In July, as President Trump was preparing a prime-time speech on election security, word went out from executives at Fox News: The network would avoid covering his stock claims about a stolen election. Fox had landed in serious legal trouble in 2021 after amplifying false assertions by Mr. Trump’s allies about vote-stealing election machines, culminating in an extraordinary $787 million defamation settlement. In 2020, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo had made her show a central stop for proponents of the president’s election theories. And this summer, too, she was preparing to interview the presidential adviser Peter Navarro the morning after the speech. But after she received a text message written by a Fox Business executive warning against post-speech coverage, she canceled Mr. Navarro’s appearance. As she did so, she shared the executive’s text with Mr. Navarro, who promptly sent it ‘up the chain’ to the White House, he said in an interview Friday. It was his duty, he said, to relay ‘yet another example of Fox personnel censoring the Trump administration.’ That sequence of events, described by Mr. Navarro and two other people with knowledge of the discussions, would bring an abrupt end to Ms. Bartiromo’s on-air career at the network.”

• The White House has launched a series of video games. Surely, they’re all fun, humane and not at all xenophobic. Right? Time magazine says: “In ‘Rio Run,’ a spin on the decades-old game Snake, players can gather and deport migrants along the Rio Grande. ‘Build the Wall,’ a Tetris-style game, lets players stack sections of a border wall to ‘protect the border from the coming horde.’ In ‘Trump Savings Tycoon,’ players collect cash and gold bars flying through the air to ‘fill your kids’ Trump Accounts,’ referring to the Administration’s tax-advantaged investment accounts for newborns. Other games include ‘Supply Line,’ where players sort out school lunch items to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ and ‘Flappy Bill,’ where players fly a bald eagle carrying legislation over the National Mall in the style of popular mobile game Flappy Bird.”

• Allstate has signaled an intent to start writing new home insurance policies in California … maybe. The San Francisco Chronicle (gift link) says: “For the first time since 2022, Allstate Insurance could begin writing new home insurance policies in California—with one condition. Last Monday, the company submitted a filing to the California Department of Insurance indicating it would reopen for business if regulators approve an overall 1.4% rate increase for existing as well as new customers. Two-thirds of customers would actually see their rates decrease, according to the filing. Another 30% would see rates increase up to 55%; less than 4% of customers’ rates would increase between 55% and 185%. These rates could change as regulators complete their review. If it gets the rate increase, the company would be required to write at least 2,064 new home insurance policies by July 2029 at the latest, a 0.6% increase in its current policy count. A spokesperson declined to comment on whether it might go beyond that minimum.”

• The U.N has endorsed a new, more-accurate world map. One country was opposed. Guess who? NPR says: “The ‘Correct the Map’ resolution, introduced by the West African country of Togo on behalf of the African Group (the 54 African member states at the U.N.) and supported by the African Union, was adopted on Friday by a vote of 164 to one, with six countries abstaining. The United States was the only country to vote against it. Before the vote, Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said maps are far more than simple representations of geography. ‘Maps shape our understanding of the world. They guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions,’ Dussey said. ‘It’s time for us in Africa to take responsibility to change what we can change ourselves.’ The resolution is not legally binding and does not require countries or institutions to abandon the centuries-old Mercator projection, one of the world’s most widely used maps. Instead, it encourages wider use of equal-area projections such as Equal Earth, which more accurately show the true relative size of countries and continents, particularly Africa, although their shapes are somewhat distorted.”

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … pork! Scripps News reports: “A recall has been issued for nearly 1,513 pounds of imported ready-to-eat pork products due to possible listeria. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the dry-cured pork jowl products were produced at Est. 1937L Bome SRL in Italy on May 21, 2026, and imported into the U.S. in July. The Prime Line Distributors, Inc., items were shipped locations in Florida and the Ferrarini USA, Inc. items were shipped to locations in California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Texas.“

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