Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #382

Text 1 The "gig economy," characterized by short-term contracts and freelance work, represents a fundamentally democratizing force in the modern labor market. By circumventing rigid corporate hierarchies, gig platforms offer workers unparalleled autonomy. Individuals can monetize their spare time on their own schedules, transforming previously unutilized hours into supplemental income. This structural flexibility empowers workers to be the architects of their own financial destinies, unshackled from the physical and temporal constraints of the traditional nine-to-five office model. Text 2 The euphemistic rebranding of precarious labor as "flexibility" is one of the great ideological triumphs of modern corporate platforms. What the gig economy actually achieves is the systemic dismantling of a century of hard-won labor protections. By classifying workers as independent contractors, platforms abdicate their responsibility to provide minimum wage guarantees, health benefits, and collective bargaining rights. This model does not empower workers; rather, it isolates them, transferring the inherent volatility and economic risk of the free market entirely onto the shoulders of the individual. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the characterization of the gig economy as a "democratizing force" in Text 1?