Ch. 29 The Sharing Economy
"As people's access to the internet grows we're seeing the sharing economy boom - I think the obsession with ownership is at a tipping point and the sharing economy is part of the antidote for that." - Richard Branson The Third Industrial Revolution is really about sharing. Sharing knowledge, sharing resources and even sharing a common purpose. In our current neo-liberal capitalist system based on consumerism, ownership and the accumulation of wealth - sharing may seem like a radical idea. But we already share a multitude of resources. The commons and public resources "The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly." (Wikipedia.org) The commons should also be thought to include tax-payer funded public resources and infrastructure: roads, bridges, public services, educatio...