That type of people have been taking over Vermont. Walk into any food co-op in Vermont and at least half the people will look and act like the older lady in the video.
They pretend to be all peaceful and kind, but if anyone disagrees with them they turn vicious. They think bigger government can solve everything, just gotta keep spending money. Most grew up very privileged and have no idea how to actually build or repair anything.
I had horrible back pain when sitting at a desk. Raising the desk helped a bit but it was still uncomfortable. Now I just sit on my couch with a laptop most of the time, no more pain.
I typically require a deposit and set a payment schedule although I'm doing most of my work on UpWork now. UpWork is nice because they handle all the billing and payment hassles and I get a weekly transfer to the account of my choice. It's worth the 5% cut.
Full-Stack LAMP, mainly building heavily-customized WordPress sites. My current project is big enough that we've brought on some front-end help, so I've learned to manage git and am paying attention to developing my "soft" skills such as management. I'm likely doing a basic AWS certification soon, perhaps followed by some more DevOps type stuff or learning more formal UI/UX skills. At that point I'll be far above the average WordPress developer and could hit $100k+ if not next year, then the year after that. Pretty good for someone without a college degree working from home.
So then the people who aren't skilled enough will have to either improve their skills or go find something else that better fits their skills. Competition is good.
The wages aren't set at a "global standard of living". They are set by how skilled you are. Usually people who complain about not being able to earn enough don't have very good skills. I've been using UpWork for a little over 2 years. Last year I did about $60k, this year will be around $75k. Being able to communicate well with my clients is a huge advantage compared to overseas workers. It also helps that I actually know what I'm doing.
I rarely work a full 40 hours per week. I've been a freelancer for almost 10 years now. I've briefly done some part-time stints in-person in offices in that time and it was a good reminder of how much I hate being stuck in an office following an arbitrary schedule.
Being part of the gig economy has brought me the best income I've ever had. And a flexible schedule so I get plenty of time with my kid. If I was still forced to look for a 9-5 based on traditional hiring practices I'd be making much less and miserable.