Dolly Parton hasn’t just spent most of the last half-century as a country music prodigy. The millions she has spent on an ample philanthropic agenda have also funded the Moderna vaccine that could end the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 500,000 Americans to date.
So, when the woke mob tries to target the country sensation, it becomes laughable. Parton’s sin? Reworking her classic hit “9 to 5” as “5 to 9.” It was for a Squarespace Super Bowl commercial celebrating the sort of side gigs the website-building company caters to.
Dolly Parton has re-recorded her hit song 9 to 5, in a Super Bowl ad for Squarespace, as “5 to 9,” as an ode to having a side hustle https://t.co/tmfbUbJqaA
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) February 2, 2021
It’s a cute and uplifting number. But the angry-by-nature found a way to be angry about this.
“Now, Parton’s silvery voice is being used to promote the false virtues of working overtime, when so many gig economy workers are barely scraping by and the tech companies who employ — but mis-classify — them are raking in boffo profits,” writes Kim Kelly over at NBC News. “The gig economy is a wretched alternative to a stable paycheck and proper benefits, and efforts to paint it as a matter of ‘independence’ or ‘being one’s own boss’ downplay how hard it is for so many gig workers to make ends meet.”
Over at Slate, Hilary Hughes deems Parton “fallible” for letting “the gig economy steal” the song.
“Dolly, I will always love you—but I will not always love the commodification of your work,” Hughes writes in her lamentation of the “hustletocracy.”
Parton is a national treasure, fortunately immune to such woke scolding. But that’s not all these writers get wrong. They’re simply whistling past the graveyard as far as the traditional employment arrangement is concerned. More than one-third of all workers were already involved in the gig economy.
Commerce site PYMNTS found in 2019 that 38% of gig workers sought out their roles specifically because of the flexibility. No, not everyone wants or can do a “9 to 5” job, but lots of people have time they can convert into money in the absence of all the strings government has attached to traditional employment. PYMNTS also found in late 2018 that about 40% of gig workers make six figures. That’s not exactly “barely scraping by.” Overall, the top 40% of workers in the U.S. economy made more than $79,542 that year — quite a bit less than the top 40% of gig economy workers.
Right now, amid restrictions on brick-and-mortar businesses, the gig economy has been a much-welcome source of income for millions. And when states like California have tried to cancel the gig economy, the workers and clients who benefit from it can be counted on to stand up and save it at the ballot box.
But, most importantly, Parton is untouchable.
