Fwd: [ PFIR ] The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem

[Rayzer]

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 at pfir.org>
> Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2015 09:48:40 -0800
> Subject: [ PFIR ]  The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem
> To: pfir-list at pfir.org
>
> The "Sharing Economy" Is the Problem
>
> http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33720-the-sharing-economy-is-the-problem
>
>   	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"


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/attachments/20151209/3d0a1b45/attachment-0003.sig>