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Yes. Color me skeptical. Groupon seems like a mediocre idea in practice (certainly not worth its original market cap) but for the others? We have these services

Yes. Color me skeptical. Groupon seems like a mediocre idea in practice (certainly not worth its original market cap) but for the others? We have these services which reduce transaction costs and barriers to entry into the marketplace. Those are the textbook preconditions of an efficient market. These service help deploy capital more efficiently... and then people take advantage of that, instead of lavishing their money on the ever-so-noble "9% / Jeffersonian middle class", and we're going to say that they have the morality of locusts? Gee, I really like comparing people to insects, because insects have no brains, then I can pretend that I know better than everyone else out there how their money ought to be spent for their own good! Which I guess involves spending extra to support unnecessary capital investments, like hotel-oriented real estate (AirBnB) or cars or what-have-you? "To the extent that your belongings are a logical expression of your genes and memes sharing them amounts to allowing others to eat them." WHOA DUDE!!! Renting out my house is like HAVING SOMEONE EAT MY SOUL??!? Give me a break. I won't even get into the rest of the tendentious assumptions; that one's enough.

Retric 13y ago
Insects have brains more importantly groups of insects can have highly complex behaviors. Also, AirBNB feeds off of the community at large by avoiding paying taxes. Consider, hotel taxes are often used to pay for the reason people want to visit in the first place ex: convention hall. That's not to say longer stays have the same issues just part of there profitability comes from people avoiding hotel regulations.
- YokoZar 13y ago
  Hotel taxes are almost universally applied because it's one of the only ways for local governments to raise revenue without taxing their own residents. This is not something to laud and praise.
seiji 13y ago
how their money ought to be spent for their own good! It's not for their own good. It's for the greater good. I fear for the world if everybody starts modeling their world view based on SF-visionary "me me me only me me me no taxes ever me me me" attitudes espoused around here. As Retric mentioned, all of this airbnb money transfer is completely cheating local taxes. You pay airbnb fee tax instead of local travel taxes, thereby turning airbnb into some sort of defacto municipal overlay around the entire world.
- guard-of-terra 13y ago
  It's not so hard to regulate. You can have AirBNB handing over their list of renters to the country's authorities in order to tax the renters. But you should be adamant that you're going to tax them not close them, otherwise it won't work.
- fennecfoxen 13y ago
  In the absence of externalities, their own good is the greater good. AirBnB's neighbors are the only ones I know of with a decent case for that (and in multi-tenant buildings, at least, there are surely some provisions for resolving such conflicts already...)

Retric 13y ago

Insects have brains more importantly groups of insects can have highly complex behaviors. Also, AirBNB feeds off of the community at large by avoiding paying taxes. Consider, hotel taxes are often used to pay for the reason people want to visit in the first place ex: convention hall. That's not to say longer stays have the same issues just part of there profitability comes from people avoiding hotel regulations.

YokoZar 13y ago
Hotel taxes are almost universally applied because it's one of the only ways for local governments to raise revenue without taxing their own residents. This is not something to laud and praise.

seiji 13y ago

how their money ought to be spent for their own good! It's not for their own good. It's for the greater good. I fear for the world if everybody starts modeling their world view based on SF-visionary "me me me only me me me no taxes ever me me me" attitudes espoused around here. As Retric mentioned, all of this airbnb money transfer is completely cheating local taxes. You pay airbnb fee tax instead of local travel taxes, thereby turning airbnb into some sort of defacto municipal overlay around the entire world.

guard-of-terra 13y ago
It's not so hard to regulate. You can have AirBNB handing over their list of renters to the country's authorities in order to tax the renters. But you should be adamant that you're going to tax them not close them, otherwise it won't work.
fennecfoxen 13y ago
In the absence of externalities, their own good is the greater good. AirBnB's neighbors are the only ones I know of with a decent case for that (and in multi-tenant buildings, at least, there are surely some provisions for resolving such conflicts already...)