Featured image: (Pacer Graphic/ Adrianna Carter)

For years now, “side hustles” have been a way to make a little extra money; however, for many people today, they are more than that: they are the way to get enough money to survive.

Across the United States, the rising cost of everyday amenities and the struggling job market has forced many people to look for income anywhere they can get it. This has led to an increase in second jobs and side hustles just to keep the bills paid. In many cases, people have turned to industries that they never imagined simply to keep the lights on.

Recently, a story was published in Esquire by author Polona Karr, where she details how she worked at a legal Nevada brothel to make ends meet. She explains that after a breakup, she was left with an apartment that, with her job as an author, she could not afford. She describes how she slipped into brothel work to pay her rent.

This is not an uncommon story. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who live this story throughout their lives, needing to turn to side hustles and outside work to stay afloat. 

According to Side Hustle Nation, 39 percent of Americans have a side hustle, with 70 percent of Gen Z looking for a side hustle. 

Situations like these reveal a troubling truth about the current economic state. They show that people are not choosing these jobs out of want or enjoyment; they have no other option.

Side hustles are supposed to be a way to gain extra money. They are meant to help afford extra items when people want them, not for paying bills when the primary job cannot provide enough.  

Economic hardships are nothing new to Americans, but when they become a large-scale thing where stories of people needing second jobs continue to rise, it raises an uncomfortable question: if people already must sell more and more of themselves just to survive, where is the line drawn? Where do we collectively agree that the job market today is shattered and broken, almost too far beyond repair?

It is sad that in today’s economy, side jobs are necessary to live comfortably. However, with the rising price of life amenities such as groceries, gas and especially living, traditional job employment alone is no longer enough for most Americans to keep up their everyday expenses.