A really good post by Olivier Blanchard, taking about how the sharing economy is mostly a deregulation scheme.
An excerpt:
If you really believe that a “ride-sharing” or room-booking service that deliberately attempts to avoid a country, state or city’s laws regarding licensing, insurance, fees and rate limits is somehow “competing” with legitimate taxis, hired cars and hotels, you’ve probably also rationalized that scoring your music and TV shows for free from pirating websites is somehow an example of legitimate market competition too. Well, it isn’t. Two sets of rules for “competitors” usually doesn’t end in fair competition – not in sports, and certainly not in business. Tip: There’s a reason Lance Armstrong was stripped of his 7 Tour de France victories, and it wasn’t because his training model was “disruptive” or “innovative.”This is a key issue with these services. I know that some people see all regulation as bad, but there are important rules and simply disrupting all of the rules presumes that unregulated systems are better. And the intellectual property piece is key, because these are rules that tech companies don't want to be disrupted.
A hat tip goes to Mike the Mad Biologist
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