3 ms·

Can we please call BS on the sharing economy name. It is is the "squeeze cash out of spare personal resources economy" (resources being time, car, house etc).

makeitsuckless 12y ago
Nah, that's another layer of the smokescreen. Lift the veil and you'll find an all out war against the rights of the "little people", be it consumer rights, labor rights, what have you. The sharing economy is to ordinary people what strip mining is to nature.
gaius 12y ago
It's also the screw-your-neighbour economy. If your little AirBnB money-spinner increases wear-and-tear on the common areas of the building, it's the other tenants who will pick up the costs of the extra maintenance. In time it will come to be seen as profoundly anti-social. Not to mention, if you're running a business you should be paying business rates and taxes... Remind me where is the "sharing"?
- yummyfajitas 12y ago
  If I leave town and rent out my flat, wear and tear on the elevator goes up relative to me not leaving town?
  - alexqgb 12y ago
    Are you trolling again, yummy? Or are you honestly too thoughtless to recognize that a stream of people who have no long-term stake in a building do not conduct themselves in the same community-oriented way that's normal among those who do?
    - pc86 12y ago
      I prefer to believe that most people do not treat common areas of buildings like garbage. There are exceptions, of course, but it's not like having an apartment that you rent out a few weeks a year will throw the apartment building into a constant state of disrepair.
      - gaius 12y ago
        In a hotel, its "someone else's problem" for the guest, why would they behave any differently if their hotel happens to also be the home of people who never signed up to this deal?
      - alexqgb 12y ago
        The problems caused by transients are hardly limited to "disrepair". Noise and disregard for building security are also real issues, as is the degradation of trust. I can be sure that my landlord will perform extensive background checks on any potential neighbors, and can be fairly confident that their friends and relatives are also on the up-and-up. But knowing that the standards for getting a room via Air B&B are considerably less stringent, an explosion of short-term rentals in a building means that long-term residents will find that they cannot be as trusting. To put it bluntly, hotel security exists for a reason. In general, I think the service is a great idea, especially for properties that don't share a lot of common space with other tenants. But in cases where they do, I tend to think that opening the building to anyone doing a search on Air B&B can be a real dick move. Nobody decent should be surprised if it draws serious hostility from the neighbors.
      - s73v3r 12y ago
        Even if they're not trashing the place, they still might not be conducting themselves like a normal resident of the building would. It's reasonable to expect that most people would be quiet and get in around reasonable hours on weeknights, because everyone has to go to work the next morning. However, someone on vacation is more likely than a regular tenant to get wasted and come back as a rowdy group, disturbing everyone else in the building.
    - dang 12y ago
      > Are you trolling again, yummy? Or are you honestly too thoughtless That is not ok in a HN comment, regardless of how wrong "yummy" may be. Please don't do this. The HN guidelines say: When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." This is a practical rule. Applying it, your comment can be shortened to: A stream of people who have no long-term stake in a building do not conduct themselves in the same community-oriented way that's normal among those who do. ... which is a fine, substantive point.
- trhway 12y ago
  pretty much agree with sentiments and don't like or use Uber/AirBNB, yet one can't not notice that "sharing" economy rise was caused in most part because of the practically unsolvable problems in "traditional" economy - people do want to stay in normal housing instead of hotel chicken coups in tourist "ghetto"s, people do need reliable transportation from point A to point B - the functionality which existing taxi system has failed spectacularly and it has no way of fixing it (when medallions hit $1M it is become crystal clear that all incumbents are in for continuation of business as usual and nobody is interested in change). Uber/AirBNB are basically classical showcases of dialectic in application to economy (people who had "marxism"/"materialism" in their curriculum would recognize it immediately).
- Spooky23 12y ago
  You get to share authentic experiences with your hotel guest neighbors! Think of the opportunity! Uber and similar services raise it to another level. Things like auto liability insurance are very 20th century.
dnissley 12y ago
It's the externalization economy.

makeitsuckless 12y ago

Nah, that's another layer of the smokescreen. Lift the veil and you'll find an all out war against the rights of the "little people", be it consumer rights, labor rights, what have you. The sharing economy is to ordinary people what strip mining is to nature.

gaius 12y ago

It's also the screw-your-neighbour economy. If your little AirBnB money-spinner increases wear-and-tear on the common areas of the building, it's the other tenants who will pick up the costs of the extra maintenance. In time it will come to be seen as profoundly anti-social. Not to mention, if you're running a business you should be paying business rates and taxes... Remind me where is the "sharing"?

yummyfajitas 12y ago
If I leave town and rent out my flat, wear and tear on the elevator goes up relative to me not leaving town?
- alexqgb 12y ago
  Are you trolling again, yummy? Or are you honestly too thoughtless to recognize that a stream of people who have no long-term stake in a building do not conduct themselves in the same community-oriented way that's normal among those who do?
  - pc86 12y ago
    I prefer to believe that most people do not treat common areas of buildings like garbage. There are exceptions, of course, but it's not like having an apartment that you rent out a few weeks a year will throw the apartment building into a constant state of disrepair.
    - gaius 12y ago
      In a hotel, its "someone else's problem" for the guest, why would they behave any differently if their hotel happens to also be the home of people who never signed up to this deal?
    - alexqgb 12y ago
      The problems caused by transients are hardly limited to "disrepair". Noise and disregard for building security are also real issues, as is the degradation of trust. I can be sure that my landlord will perform extensive background checks on any potential neighbors, and can be fairly confident that their friends and relatives are also on the up-and-up. But knowing that the standards for getting a room via Air B&B are considerably less stringent, an explosion of short-term rentals in a building means that long-term residents will find that they cannot be as trusting. To put it bluntly, hotel security exists for a reason. In general, I think the service is a great idea, especially for properties that don't share a lot of common space with other tenants. But in cases where they do, I tend to think that opening the building to anyone doing a search on Air B&B can be a real dick move. Nobody decent should be surprised if it draws serious hostility from the neighbors.
    - s73v3r 12y ago
      Even if they're not trashing the place, they still might not be conducting themselves like a normal resident of the building would. It's reasonable to expect that most people would be quiet and get in around reasonable hours on weeknights, because everyone has to go to work the next morning. However, someone on vacation is more likely than a regular tenant to get wasted and come back as a rowdy group, disturbing everyone else in the building.
  - dang 12y ago
    > Are you trolling again, yummy? Or are you honestly too thoughtless That is not ok in a HN comment, regardless of how wrong "yummy" may be. Please don't do this. The HN guidelines say: When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." This is a practical rule. Applying it, your comment can be shortened to: A stream of people who have no long-term stake in a building do not conduct themselves in the same community-oriented way that's normal among those who do. ... which is a fine, substantive point.
trhway 12y ago
pretty much agree with sentiments and don't like or use Uber/AirBNB, yet one can't not notice that "sharing" economy rise was caused in most part because of the practically unsolvable problems in "traditional" economy - people do want to stay in normal housing instead of hotel chicken coups in tourist "ghetto"s, people do need reliable transportation from point A to point B - the functionality which existing taxi system has failed spectacularly and it has no way of fixing it (when medallions hit $1M it is become crystal clear that all incumbents are in for continuation of business as usual and nobody is interested in change). Uber/AirBNB are basically classical showcases of dialectic in application to economy (people who had "marxism"/"materialism" in their curriculum would recognize it immediately).
Spooky23 12y ago
You get to share authentic experiences with your hotel guest neighbors! Think of the opportunity! Uber and similar services raise it to another level. Things like auto liability insurance are very 20th century.

dnissley 12y ago

It's the externalization economy.