> Do you know what they all have in common? Taking advantage of people's weak economic situation.
I don't agree with this characterization. If anything, these companies provided a way to extract value from under-utilized assets. For example, most people in the US have a car anyway. It's required. It's not a luxury. Taking Uber as the example, to work as a taxi driver previously required you to do strict shifts in a car that very much looks like a cab (that you may not own anyway). While many Uber drivers do it full time, some don't and some started off part-time because that was an option.
I'm more critical of AirBnB as I think the communities around AirBnBs suffer the externalities as people essentially run unregulated hotels. I'm not a fan of that at all.
I don't agree with this characterization. If anything, these companies provided a way to extract value from under-utilized assets. For example, most people in the US have a car anyway. It's required. It's not a luxury. Taking Uber as the example, to work as a taxi driver previously required you to do strict shifts in a car that very much looks like a cab (that you may not own anyway). While many Uber drivers do it full time, some don't and some started off part-time because that was an option.
I'm more critical of AirBnB as I think the communities around AirBnBs suffer the externalities as people essentially run unregulated hotels. I'm not a fan of that at all.
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