Fwd: [ PFIR ] The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem
Perhaps this is worth discussion. Are AirBnB, Uber and Homejoy examples of political anarchism (degenerate or otherwise)? Are we seeing the ultimate in self responsibility (I would say self responsibility is a good thing)? How might we embrace such self responsibility, whilst also manifesting collective empathy/ shared 'responsibility' (perhaps there's a better term here)? Is Lauren Weinstein with his indenting style actually Juan in disguise? Or is it in actual fact the other way around? Z ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List" <pfir@pfir.org> Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2015 09:48:40 -0800 Subject: [ PFIR ] The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem To: pfir-list@pfir.org The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33720-the-sharing-economy-is-the-probl... It's unfortunate then that these companies and the misnamed "sharing economy" are really just fronts for millionaires and billionaires to opportunistically ride off the backs of everyday people, while also exacerbating many economic inequalities. Avi Asher-Schapiro explains the truth in Jacobin: The premise is seductive in its simplicity: people have skills, and customers want services. Silicon Valley plays matchmaker, churning out apps that pair workers with work. Now, anyone can rent out an apartment with AirBnB, become a cabbie through Uber, or clean houses using Homejoy. But under the guise of innovation and progress, companies are stripping away worker protections, pushing down wages, and flouting government regulations. At its core, the sharing economy is a scheme to shift risk from companies to workers, discourage labor organizing, and ensure that capitalists can reap huge profits with low fixed costs.
Zenaan Harkness wrote:
Perhaps this is worth discussion.
Are AirBnB, Uber and Homejoy examples of political anarchism (degenerate or otherwise)?
Are we seeing the ultimate in self responsibility (I would say self responsibility is a good thing)?
How might we embrace such self responsibility, whilst also manifesting collective empathy/ shared 'responsibility' (perhaps there's a better term here)?
Is Lauren Weinstein with his indenting style actually Juan in disguise? Or is it in actual fact the other way around? Z
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List" <pfir@pfir.org> Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2015 09:48:40 -0800 Subject: [ PFIR ] The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem To: pfir-list@pfir.org
The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33720-the-sharing-economy-is-the-probl...
It's unfortunate then that these companies and the misnamed "sharing economy" are really just fronts for millionaires and billionaires to opportunistically ride off the backs of everyday people, while also exacerbating many economic inequalities. Avi Asher-Schapiro explains the truth in Jacobin: The premise is seductive in its simplicity: people have skills, and customers want services. Silicon Valley plays matchmaker, churning out apps that pair workers with work. Now, anyone can rent out an apartment with AirBnB, become a cabbie through Uber, or clean houses using Homejoy. But under the guise of innovation and progress, companies are stripping away worker protections, pushing down wages, and flouting government regulations. At its core, the sharing economy is a scheme to shift risk from companies to workers, discourage labor organizing, and ensure that capitalists can reap huge profits with low fixed costs.
I can speak to airbnb. I watched a city council meeting a few months ago as a bunch of airbnb 'homeowners' (investment properties they MIGHT live at) hammered the talking point over and over again that having people rent their space by the day or week and go touristing is somehow better for the economy of my town than having someone who lives in a unit year round, goes shopping for groceries every week, has his car work done at a local garage etc. This happened at a meeting that was ostensibly to discuss the housing crisis in my Monterey Bay area town where a studio apartment rents for $2,000/month and no one who works for any average business based in the town makes anywhere NEAR that kind of money. The city council creeps just sat there mute. Not ONE OF THEM said "Can you show us any numbers to prove this??, because they long ago had prostituted themselves to mostly non-local commercial property interests and they had no intrinsic argument with airbnb's view. The problem with the "Sharing Economy" is that it only shares with other people involved in that 'economy' and excludes others. That's feudal, and Feudalist sharing is NOT sharing for the benefit of a whole community. It's sharing for the benefit of a few. What else would you expect from a totally psychopathic society like 'merica. -- RR "Yuppies. They don't want to live in your neighborhood. They want to live in THEIR neighborhood where you USED TO live"
The problem with the "Sharing Economy" is that it only shares with other people involved in that 'economy' and excludes others. That's feudal, and Feudalist sharing is NOT sharing for the benefit of a whole community. It's sharing for the benefit of a few. Something feels here like sand in cogwheel... so what? So we have invented we can share our resources, which is positive from social side same as from ecological. Now we should decide if to kill whole idea for everybody, or just create new market, where you can fight to win? Where is bonus of NOT to allow sharing of cars as business? I have been in some countries where no such thing as public transport does really exists and this model is there on voluntary and kapitalistic basic for years and why not. In our country to get cab, like one from that approved companies is usually ... stupid. They will rob you, they will dictate their rules, what you can and what you can't. It is closed market without any
On 09.12.15 23:14, Rayzer wrote: progress for years. I do expect argument, that legal taxi at least pay taxes and some social security and all that. You can be sure, they know town or city and they know how to drive. Hmm. OK, one correct thing is, that they are doing special driving license to be allowed to drive cab. That is all. Price is 40% higher than Uber, service is usually much worse and even Prague as city is not able to get a rid of this taxi mafia. Czech people do not need taxi, because we can easily get a bus, tram, trolleybus, train ... wherever we want, so they are just robbing tourists. Uber and simillar services can just easily kill this sh*t by just creating free market possibility. Regards, -- Over -- “Borders I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.” ― Thor Heyerdahl Telegram ................... @over23 facebook ................... facebook.com/overdrive23 Hackerspace project ........ https://labka.cz twitter .................... https://twitter.com/#!/over2393 GnuPG key FingerPrint ...... 08EA E4DC EF85 0F02 9267 5B48 2E58 6902 C5F8 794C Public key ................. http://overdrive.dronezone.eu/overdrive.txt
People renting out entire houses as investments on Airbnb are just a reflection of the fact that the hotel business is a racket. Don't blame Airbnb; they're just the messenger. Likewise Uber and taxis. Both organizations take power away from the rent-seekers and by proxy the government. Yes they are still centralized and self-interested, but the real bad guys here are the corrupt city and state governments that are in bed with the hoteliers and taxi companies. Get rid of the special privileges (regulatory barriers etc) and Uber and Airbnb's profit margins would be much lower. On Sat, Dec 12, 2015, 10:54 Tomas Overdrive Petru <tpetru@gmail.com> wrote:
The problem with the "Sharing Economy" is that it only shares with other people involved in that 'economy' and excludes others. That's feudal, and Feudalist sharing is NOT sharing for the benefit of a whole community. It's sharing for the benefit of a few. Something feels here like sand in cogwheel... so what? So we have invented we can share our resources, which is positive from social side same as from ecological. Now we should decide if to kill whole idea for everybody, or just create new market, where you can fight to win? Where is bonus of NOT to allow sharing of cars as business? I have been in some countries where no such thing as public transport does really exists and this model is there on voluntary and kapitalistic basic for years and why not. In our country to get cab, like one from that approved companies is usually ... stupid. They will rob you, they will dictate their rules, what you can and what you can't. It is closed market without any
On 09.12.15 23:14, Rayzer wrote: progress for years. I do expect argument, that legal taxi at least pay taxes and some social security and all that. You can be sure, they know town or city and they know how to drive. Hmm. OK, one correct thing is, that they are doing special driving license to be allowed to drive cab. That is all. Price is 40% higher than Uber, service is usually much worse and even Prague as city is not able to get a rid of this taxi mafia. Czech people do not need taxi, because we can easily get a bus, tram, trolleybus, train ... wherever we want, so they are just robbing tourists. Uber and simillar services can just easily kill this sh*t by just creating free market possibility.
Regards, -- Over
-- “Borders I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.” ― Thor Heyerdahl
Telegram ................... @over23 facebook ................... facebook.com/overdrive23 Hackerspace project ........ https://labka.cz twitter .................... https://twitter.com/#!/over2393 GnuPG key FingerPrint ...... 08EA E4DC EF85 0F02 9267 5B48 2E58 6902 C5F8 794C Public key ................. http://overdrive.dronezone.eu/overdrive.txt
On Wed, 9 Dec 2015 20:54:10 +0000 Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net> wrote:
Perhaps this is worth discussion.
Are AirBnB, Uber and Homejoy examples of political anarchism (degenerate or otherwise)?
AiBnB and Uber are centralized middlemen - though the fact that uber goes against the privileges of the taxi mafia is an example of a freer market at work - at least in some limited fashion. On the other hand the 'market' is wholly owned by the middleman and the potential for abuse (assuming airbnb is not already the NSA) is...big. I suppose the anarchist version would exist as a p2p network, for starters. Haven't the cypherpunks already coded a bunch of those decentralized, censorship resistant, anonymous, bla bla bla systems? Anyway, I think couchsurfing is closer to anarchism than uber or airbnb (though the platform is just as centralized).
Are we seeing the ultimate in self responsibility (I would say self responsibility is a good thing)?
How might we embrace such self responsibility, whilst also manifesting collective empathy/ shared 'responsibility' (perhaps there's a better term here)?
Is Lauren Weinstein with his indenting style actually Juan in disguise?
Well...this is something I wouldn't say : " companies are stripping away worker protections, pushing down wages, and flouting government regulations" While I do think that airbnb and the like are more sophisticated forms of corporatism (not a free market), I wouldn't suggest that they are the only bad guys in town and that 'progressive' statists are the good guys who protect 'workers' with 'regulations'.
Or is it in actual fact the other way around? Z
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List" <pfir@pfir.org> Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2015 09:48:40 -0800 Subject: [ PFIR ] The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem To: pfir-list@pfir.org
The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33720-the-sharing-economy-is-the-probl...
It's unfortunate then that these companies and the misnamed "sharing economy" are really just fronts for millionaires and billionaires to opportunistically ride off the backs of everyday people, while also exacerbating many economic inequalities. Avi Asher-Schapiro explains the truth in Jacobin: The premise is seductive in its simplicity: people have skills, and customers want services. Silicon Valley plays matchmaker, churning out apps that pair workers with work. Now, anyone can rent out an apartment with AirBnB, become a cabbie through Uber, or clean houses using Homejoy. But under the guise of innovation and progress, companies are stripping away worker protections, pushing down wages, and flouting government regulations. At its core, the sharing economy is a scheme to shift risk from companies to workers, discourage labor organizing, and ensure that capitalists can reap huge profits with low fixed costs.
Dnia środa, 9 grudnia 2015 20:54:10 Zenaan Harkness pisze:
Perhaps this is worth discussion.
Are AirBnB, Uber and Homejoy examples of political anarchism (degenerate or otherwise)?
AirBnB and Uber (don't know Homejoy) are as much "sharing economy", as "Open Office XML" is related to Open Office and an open standard. I.e. they are not, and are just trying to look like it. -- Pozdrawiam, Michał "rysiek" Woźniak Zmieniam klucz GPG :: http://rys.io/pl/147 GPG Key Transition :: http://rys.io/en/147
participants (6)
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juan -
Rayzer -
rysiek -
Sean Lynch -
Tomas Overdrive Petru -
Zenaan Harkness