Friday, September 20, 2013
The Sharing Economy
In today's very connected society, a new form of economy is appearing. It's called the sharing economy. According to The Guardian, the sharing economy is set to become a major part of many people's lives. What does it mean to be a part of the sharing economy? On Airbnb, a peer to peer lodgings market has appeared. A person may rent a room, pool house or even a couch on Airbnb. Many of these places are nicer than a hotel and cheaper. Airbnb performs background checks on the people renting out the places for safety. In the UK, a site called TaskRabbit.com is gaining in popularity. Need someone to do your grocery shopping for you while you take care of other errands? If you've got $25-35 dollars to spare TaskRabbit can find someone to do your grocery shopping. TaskRabbit offers many other services such as cleaning, organizing and baking. Need to borrow a car for a few hours? BlaBlaCar.com connects people who have cars with people who want to borrow them. The sharing economy offers unconventional trades between people but it could be used to help the unemployed. Source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/04/internet-technology-fon-taskrabbit-blablacar
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Sharing is not a bad thing but it’s not always good. If you lend your couch to a person that you don’t know, you can end up being robbed or killed if that person was a criminal. Not everyone will do a background check on people that they’re lending their couch to. They might not know how to or they don’t have the ability to do so. Sharing also makes the property lose its value. The owner can end up owning nothing because everything is being shared.
ReplyDeleteThis idea is almost identical to the idea that we explored when we read about the washing machine that helps you "make friends". Personally, I was always skeptical about the idea of sharing such valued items (i.e. cars, appliances, etc.) because I know for a fact that I would only trust certain individuals with my own personal items like that. Second, while it may be time sensitive to complete certain tasks like grocery shopping or doing laundry, I still believe that the number of people who actually accepted the help with these activities would be small. I think that the sharing economy is growing now because people are beginning to allow themselves to rely on family members or close friends to help out with favors. However, I do believe that the growth will subside as people fail to go out of their way to "meet" people or "make friends" with people to do said activity with/for them.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great generalized idea that i believe will become more popular in the future. Not only could it help unemployed individuals, it would be a way of using your "resources" more efficiently. Of course it's going to take a long time for people to get accustomed to this idea, but it's something that is clearly emerging into today's world. However; just as Lindsay said, it could be a hit sometime in the future, but most likely it will subside. What are the negatives about this idea?
ReplyDeleteCody I think the negatives are that it is against human nature. We are naturally selfish and tend towards ideas embodied in Capitalism (competition, etc.). One of the reasons the Communist system collapsed is that people are naturally inclined to fight for themselves. If I know that I can just borrow my neighbor's car, why should I get my own? If I know that my neighbor will always want to borrow my car, why should I get one at all? I don't think the sharing economy is something that will ever really replace anything we currently have because it relies on capitalism to even function. It might produce a few cutesy apps and weirdo washing machine buddies, but I don't think it will go much further than that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex's point. I could not see this trend becoming reality in the future because it goes against everything we have done for generations. Even if this process gives us more of a comparative advantage, nobody is going to want to share tasks with other people. I believe that it makes an unbroken system needlessly more complicated. I for one would never participate in a sharing economy such as this, for I am much too distrusting of others to involve them in a mundane task such as washing my clothes. There are some things in life that just don't need a social aspect attached to them.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that this will mostly defiantly not become a future system of ours. There are something things in life that people won't want to share. I also think that this could cause people to become even more lazy than we are already becoming because if your neighbor lets you use their car all the time, there are those people that will think to themselves I don't have to work so hard because I don't have to worry about taking care of a car completely on my own.
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