Sir, – Fionn Rogan ("Gig economy is the mass exploitation of millennials", Opinion & Analysis, February 5th) employs gig economics to support his arguments about millennials being exploited by the gig economy: informal, non-replicable, short term, and incapable of scrutiny from a wider, more critical audience.
For one thing, if millennials are being exploited, then it is exploitation of millennials by other smartphone-owning millennials: take a look at the food delivery sector for a classic example of how immigrant millennials are being exploited.
Second, the term “millennial”, as used, is a convenient hashtag definition that covers an arguable period of years, typically from early 1980s to the early 2000s, a time of varying economic performance, political, social, and technological change. You cannot treat such an age grouping as a homogeneous cohort in terms of class, access to capital, education, gender, ethnicity, or other dimensions.
Finally, trade unions as a solution? Sorry to disappoint, but that gig was up years ago!
Millennials might try turning off their smartphones for the next six months and disabling what David McWilliams ("If you want to work smarter, quit your smartphone", February 3rd) refers to as the "distracted economy" (an attention-demanding world driven by a fear of missing out) and showing real empathy with other millennials such as those cycling in the rain to bring them sushi and hand-whipped ice cream on demand. – Yours, etc,
JUDITH GOLDBERGER,
Donnybrook
Dublin 4.