“What these apps do is force people who live stable lives to confront the instability of working-class lives — very directly and for their own benefit,” said Louis Hyman, an economic historian at Cornell. “Before these apps, it was easy to pretend that wasn’t really happening,” he said of the yawning gaps in the economy. The companies and industries that prosper during them often anticipate how society will change in the years to come. The advertising industry grew during the Great Depression, as companies fought for scarce consumer dollars and sold escapism in alcohol, tobacco and entertainment. Accounting firms and banks boomed, too, out of the New Deal-era regulation that came from the Depression.

Source: New York Times December 28, 2020 11:18 UTC