As the government shutdown nears the end of its fourth week, 1,500 GoFundMe pages have been created by furloughed government employees looking for financial help.

In Davis, California, a family of four with another baby on the way living off the single income of a biologist with the United States Geological survey asked for $4,000 on GoFundMe to keep the lights on, and were humbled that they were able to raise more than $8,000. The New York Times highlighted the plight of 20-year-old sophomore Cartonise Lawson-Wilson, who's unable to submit the paperwork required for a grant that will cover her tuition at the University of Michigan-Dearborn because the Internal Revenue Service is closed. At the time of writing, her GoFundMe campaign has raised $2,866 out of her goal of $7,512.

There is nothing wrong with asking for help. There's also nothing wrong with giving money to people who need it. If you can afford it, and want to, please donate to whatever GoFundMe campaign you’d like. If you’re an eccentric and generous millionaire, go ahead and fund all of them. Maybe it will make your day more interesting. We’ll probably write a blog about you if you do. But know this: while it is nice and arguably good that an internet platform like GoFundMe is making it easier for people in need to ask for and receive donations, the fact that a government shutdown drove 1,500 people in one of the richest countries in the world to publicly beg for money in order to survive should make you sick to your stomach.

We can survive this way, yes, it's true. A furloughed government employee with nothing but crushing debt to their name can beg for a few bucks on their Ko-fi account and buy lunch. The problem is that an increasing number of us have to rely on begging because all other, better, more dignified alternatives have been taken from us.

Having a gig in the gig economy is like having a normal job but without any of the benefits. Being freelance is like having a job without any of the benefits and sometimes you don't get paid for the work that you do. The uptick in GoFundMe pages as a result of the shutdown shows what could come after the gig economy, a natural next step in the total and utter debasement of the working class in the service of technocapitalism: The begging economy.