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54 sats \ 11 replies \ @Undisciplined 19h \ on: The Ownership Obsession: What Uber and AirBnB Really Sell (TDE, Munger) econ
Love Munger. Love this topic.
I do tend to buy the things I need, but I don't really buy anything in advance of needing it. That's sort of a middle ground between the renters and preppers.
For me, what I'm paying for is avoiding the irritation of rental transactions. I believe this ties into how people tend to undervalue their time. Each time I rent something, I have to spend time acquiring it and most things are so cheap that it's not worth doing that more than once.
I'm a bit on the fence about the conclusion above, for exactly the "feature" you mention:
the irritation of rental transactions .. I have to spend time acquiring it.
But I've now spent 2 hours on formulating a response and I'm still unhappy, so I need to spend more thinking time on this. Maybe later.
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Maybe you just don't hate tedious paperwork as much as I do.
True... I guess that also puts a strict limit on the sharing economy?
Only pretty major things like Airbnb are worth spending time to rent...
(Though, Ubers work and nobody cares about the driver or the car quality and rides are pretty cheap, so I guess my hypothesis is screwed)
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Uber's an interesting case because I'm not sure what percent of its activity is actually sharing, vs. full-time professional driving.
To the extent that Uber was able to get such a quick foothold into the market for professional taxi services, i'd also argue that it was due to lack of competition / regulatory restrictions in the supply of taxis. So a second role of the sharing platforms is to circumvent traditional regulations via the amateur labeling of their suppliers.
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Good point, although the only Uber driver I know is an economist who does it occasionally on the side.
It got me thinking about whether I should look into that or similar things and only accept jobs that are basically on my way, anyways.
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So a second role of the sharing platforms is to circumvent traditional regulations via the amateur labeling of their suppliers.
That, too, is an extra important benefit!
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I recently tallied up how much owning our car costs us and it's several thousand dollars per year. We own it outright, so that's just gas, maintenance, taxes, fees, insurance, etc. Most of that shit is government mandated.
Then, add to that the frustration, time, and expenses involved in city parking.
A lot of door-to-door Ubers can be justified against those costs.
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"just"
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Right? But, it's that much without accounting for the actual purchase of the car.
@kr pretty much convinced me that an unregistered golf cart is where the money's at.
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What a life hack!
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