Sharing (Is Caring) Economy
“Sharing it caring!” At least that’s what we’ve always heard when we were younger, right? The basis of this ideology of “sharing is caring” is to spread kindness. But could the share economy be really considered the same thing if it is for profit? In Christian Fuchs’ chapter on the political economy of sharing platforms, companies like AirBnB and Uber undermine established industries that abide by certain rules and regulations of services for rent, transportation, and so forth.
One industry that has been affected by this sharing economy of business are taxi companies. The ride-sharing app Uber tends to have lower rates than taxi drivers and that in turn has significantly decreased the amount of people taking taxis now. But in Uber’s defense, it is a more convenient service. Taxis do not pick you up at your location like Uber does. These companies also claim to provide decent salaries to low wage workers.
But what supporters of the share economy neglect to acknowledge are some of the downfalls 0f this economic model. With Uber for example, although they may pay a good amount initially, what is not included in there is the price of gas the customer needs, the insurance cost, and maintenance costs as well. Also, a lot of these low paying jobs like taxi drivers are usually reserved for the underprivileged immigrants that enter the country looking for jobs. So those jobs are being endangered by share economies.
As skeptical as I may sound about the basis of share economy, not all are bad. The idea of share economy is being used on Facebook to bring together people that are selling items of interest to other people (like UCR Craigslist) or even give away free stuff at times. This helps eliminate the middle man for profit and allows the parties involved to benefit directly from the transaction.
