I replied to this soon after it was posted, but opted to delete. Now I'll try to rephrase.
My primary objection is to the idea that you can tell a book from its cover or anything that might be construed to suggest that there is some immutable lesser category of person. I live in San Francisco and walk its sidewalks every day. I've seen a lot of the category of homeless you're talking about. But it is silly to categorize. And a lot of times, even for those who don't shower, wear the same clothes and don't have a car, you really can't tell sometimes. It's also the case that housed people also have varying amounts of hygiene and behaviors. We are all just people.
In the context of this thread, my point was that the gig economy is not a sufficient replacement for casual labor, because there's a lot of people in precarious situations who could get day-labor work but can't make themselves presentable enough (whether in terms of grooming or socialization) to be accepted in the gig economy.
My primary objection is to the idea that you can tell a book from its cover or anything that might be construed to suggest that there is some immutable lesser category of person. I live in San Francisco and walk its sidewalks every day. I've seen a lot of the category of homeless you're talking about. But it is silly to categorize. And a lot of times, even for those who don't shower, wear the same clothes and don't have a car, you really can't tell sometimes. It's also the case that housed people also have varying amounts of hygiene and behaviors. We are all just people.