[ared38]

But AirBnB and Uber aren't actually sharing. The uber driver isn't carpooling on their way to work, they're your driver, which is a luxury. Likewise an entire apartment on vacation is much better than a hotel room.

Actual sharing like couch surfing hasn't been nearly as popular.

[djsumdog]

I remember reading a blog post on "The Bullshit Sharing Economy" while I was backpacking and it made the same general argument.

If it were a real sharing economy, the developers and system engineers on the platform would make the same hourly rates as the drivers. In such a way everyone would contribute to the co-op and everyone would benefit.

It'd be interesting to see a price breakdown internally at Uber or Lyft and see how much people would actually get paid if every driver/contractor and every dev/admin/janitor/board member were to make the same hourly rate.

[Jtsummers]

I generally agree that the "sharing" economy isn't a sharing economy. But I don't think this:

  If it were a real sharing economy, the developers and system
  engineers on the platform would make the same hourly rates as
  the drivers. In such a way everyone would contribute to the
  co-op and everyone would benefit.

follows.

Different services are worth different amounts depending on the value they yield and, sometimes, who they're targeted at. If a relatively small team of programmers can enable a massive business, then they may be deserving of apparently outsized compensation for their time and work.

[TeMPOraL]

This is the leak that connects "sharing economy" with real economy. In a proper sharing economy (e.g. couchsurfing), you don't have compensation.

[resonantjacket5]

lol I fail to see the logic in where "real sharing" and equal wage became correlated. If I lent my lawnmower to my neighbor what does that have to do with his wage?

[TeMPOraL]

Presumably because you shouldn't be even talking wages in a sharing economy, at least not beyond money flow that's necessary to keep the system afloat.