Freelancing = Hustling? What Has Freelancing become?

My story starts at age of 21, like 10 years ago when I stopped working on-site for the huge corporation (NCR). I’ve decided to help my family while being at home, due to the illness of my dad, and earn some money. The only way at the time was to implement my IT knowledge. In Serbia, that is still something you have to really pull up your sleeves to get a job for. Imagine then… Now from oDesk, to UpWork, and Freelancer — I would like to give you my seeing of things how it all changed and how the market of freelancers changed. Realistically.

I’ve started at oDesk. I still remember my first job.

Where are we after starting the whole deal — war in Ukraine?
Have people reacted like this when NATO was booming Yugoslavia (a country in the middle of Europe?)