[lbo-talk] Jayati Ghosh on the contradictory effects of tech change

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Mon Feb 15 10:06:12 PST 2016



> I totally don't get how uber/airbnb gets rid of the
> middleman. They are the middleman.

I think when people talk about this, they are getting at something a little more subtle.

When you want a taxi in many places (forget Manhattan for a moment), you have many phone numbers you can call. Uber thus provides a single-point-of-dispatch. Similarly thre are any number of hotel chains with their own websites, 800-numbers, etc. Airbnb thus provides "one stop shopping" -- in a way that, say, Orbitz also provides.

The problem I have with Uber and Airbnb is that a fundamental part of their business plan is the complete circumvention of regulation. In a place like Berkeley for instance, it's generally accepted that if you rent out your home for more than 14 nights in a year, you are not really "sharing" -- you are a hotel, subject to licensing, taxation, inspections, etc. Airbnb says "wink-wink, you should comply with local regulations" but actively encourages people to ignore those laws.

This is just one more way to drain governments of tax revenue and thus relevance.

I agree that in many places the taxi systems are arcane, corrupt and broken; but Uber is not the way to "fix" it ...

/jordan



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