What does this mean, really? What is being "shared" with me? Airbnb's pricing in competitive markets is nearly on par with a hotel room. No one is being generous or sharing here. They're asking for what the market can bear. Except I don't get a concierge, daily housekeeping, a gym, a pool, etc.
There's this hypocritical leftist double-speak here where we pretend there's some community building or altruistic aspect at work. There's not. Its just people turning their homes into hotels for massive profit.
Hell, now commercial entities are involved, so that means less affordable rental spaces for local residents because they're just Airbnb money makers now. Now rents/prices go up to reflect the lack of real estate for renters and buyers. You'd think community minded people would care about that. Nope, they just want easy money like everyone else, but somehow they get to pretend they're morally above us all while doing it. Portland hipsters are all about the Benjamins too.
It has nothing to do with the left. The left, such as it is, views the "sharing economy" as the newest innovation in neoliberal capitalist divide-and-rule subjugation.
Really great to see people actually thinking about big business not being your friend on a US web-site.
Now the US has become a finance/rentier economy it's great to see young people questioning business propaganda.
I'm not sure however why you say "leftist double-speak" though. Bloomberg, last time I checked, wasn't left-wing. This is all neo-liberal "free market" / "let's financialise everything" crowd.
Bloomberg didn't coin "sharing economy." This is bay area/valley liberalism and "share" services dominate in more left-leaning urban areas. There seems to be a big appeal of the "Oh, I'm not renting my home out for the money, I'm doing it to help poor travelers, meet new people, fight the 'evil' hotel industry, etc" ethos, which is pretty much bullshit.
What does this mean, really? What is being "shared" with me? Airbnb's pricing in competitive markets is nearly on par with a hotel room. No one is being generous or sharing here. They're asking for what the market can bear. Except I don't get a concierge, daily housekeeping, a gym, a pool, etc.
There's this hypocritical leftist double-speak here where we pretend there's some community building or altruistic aspect at work. There's not. Its just people turning their homes into hotels for massive profit.
Hell, now commercial entities are involved, so that means less affordable rental spaces for local residents because they're just Airbnb money makers now. Now rents/prices go up to reflect the lack of real estate for renters and buyers. You'd think community minded people would care about that. Nope, they just want easy money like everyone else, but somehow they get to pretend they're morally above us all while doing it. Portland hipsters are all about the Benjamins too.