Will somebody please hand me my change!

Learning to share in the sharing economy

by Nathan Richardson

Anyone want to share this bag of chips with me? Sure, help yourself! That’ll be four dollars please!

For most of us, especially those with siblings, we learnt to share at an early age. We shared our toys, our crayons, even our food. Some of us over a certain age, probably had a little bit of sharing beaten into us.

As we got a little older we learn’t about money. Sometimes it took a little while to get the hang of how it all worked — I remember crying when shop keepers didn’t give me change, it didn’t matter if I’d paid the correct amount or not.

As slow as I may have been, I guess I was still playing with action figures by the time I got the hang of the whole money thing. I could tell the difference between sharing and things I had to pay for — if I ate some of my sisters candy and she ate my cookie, that’s sharing, but if I was in a shop I’d have to pay some of my hard-earned pocket money for anything I ate. Shops, generally, aren’t hugely into the whole sharing thing. I suppose that’s the point of a shop really. Nothing wrong with it, but it isn’t ‘sharing’.

Now I’m older and the sharing economy is gaining traction, the lines between sharing and paying for stuff is getting a little blurred. I assume I’m getting to that age where I’m no longer keeping up with the world — new technologies, new ways of doing things, are passing me by as I cling to the old ways.

Now, I’m no historian, nor an expert of all the ‘sharing economy’ has to offer, but I remember when sharing economy meant couch surfing — I sleep at your place, usually crashing on a sofa, and you can sleep at mine, no money changing hands. In my youth, I even crossed the Mediterranean Sea by yacht in exchange for some simple work on board to pay my way.

It was all pretty hippy-ish, “you can’t, like, own a potato!”, stick-it-to-the-man kinda stuff, a way to transcend the capitalistic ways of our parents. Nowadays though, and I don’t know whether it’s because I grew up or because I cut my hair, it all seems to have changed.

Just as Dylan went electric, so the sharing economy gone capitalist. It sold out, it brought a sharp suit and is desperately hoping nobody noticed. Maybe the fashionably beat-up sneakers peeping out from under the pinstripes will keep us thinking its the same as it’s ever been.

Instead of couch-surfing, I can now AirBnB my accommodation needs. If I need a lift somewhere, well, I suppose I can use Lyft. Both AirBnB and Lyft are at the forefront of the new wave ‘sharing’ companies, facilitating the average Joe to ‘share’ their home or car with those with a need. The great thing about these services is that all they ask for in exchange is…

…cold hard cash.

That doesn’t seem very sharing. If I stay in a hotel and pay them for the privilege, would you call that sharing? Is it because it’s someone’s home? So does a bed and breakfast (the BnB in AirBnB) qualify? Is a taxi driver sharing? Is the plumber I pay to fix my burst pipe sharing?

When it comes to describing something as ‘sharing’ or being part of the ‘sharing-economy’, a distinction, a line needs to be drawn. It’s not simply about whether money is involved or not. If I split a plate of fries with a friend, that’s still sharing. If I charge for the privilege, it’s not sharing anymore.

Lyft and Uber drivers are not ride-sharing. Like a taxi driver, they drive-for-hire, they make a profit. AirBnb hosts make a profit. They don’t share, not in the traditional sense of the word. Just like those battered sneakers under the suit are there to make us think they are just ‘one of us’, the sharing moniker is there to appeal to our sense of community, that they’re not the same as the traditional players in the market.

At Carma, our jimmies get a little rustled each time we hear of citizen taxi companies (are regular taxi drivers not citizens?) like Lyft and Uber mentioned in the same breath as ridesharing.

Maybe we’re all just amateur linguists or really protective of the dictionary. Maybe it’s because we truly believe what we’re doing is genuine, honest-to-god sharing, the way we all understood it back in 2nd grade. A way to make a significant impact on the traffic choking our cities, a way for everyone to reduce their commute costs.

Our drivers don’t make a profit, heck, they don’t even always drive. Sometimes they ride and others drive. It doesn’t matter. Whether you’re a driver, a rider, or a bit of both, the trips our users make are trips they would be making anyway. Maybe, usually, it’s a morning commute into work, but instead of each person sat alone in their separate cars, with separate costs, each adding to traffic they are complaining about, they share a car and they share the costs.

At the risk of generalising, thats’s all our app does — it helps people share. Literally, we let people share their ride. Rideshare. Ridesharing. That’s it!

Now, somebody hand me my change before I start crying!