technical efficiency¶

It's both. Advances in technical efficiency are always used to minimize the labor necessary for production, thereby freeing up industries to invest more into constant capital (machinery, land, IP, raw materials, faux frais, etc.) and less into variable capital (labor power). https://t.co/xc3z7bY8mz Whether through implementing less labor-intensive techniques and technologies, using less expensive labor, or moving capital from one industry to another, the goal is always to increase the ratio of constant to variable capital. In many cases, including this one, multiple opportunities for achieving that goal emerge simultaneously. With a technology that is easier to use, less expertise is necessary for production, meaning a greater mass of labor is available, and the price to purchase labor power falls. As technological efficiency increases across the industry, the amount of constant capital that must be invested to attain the same amount of profit also increases, which is untenable, and requires capitalists to remediate their losses in any of several ways. The easiest way to repair the falling rate of profit is to increase the rate of exploitation, and "gig tech workers" would be one such method for that. In addition, any labor that can be done at the discounted rate of immiserated third world workers will find its way there.