(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
I was in Manchester and rented the AirBnB apartment. In Berlin, I did the same. In St. Petersburg we drove Uber taxis. With a nice and punctual driver. New and exciting for tourists and young people without a family. But now comes a backlash.
Now starting with 1. May bans Air BnB in Berlin. In all the hustle and bustle surrounding the new "sharing economy" that Green politicians describe as a good use of resources, Berlin City has understood and acted spontaneously: AirBnB is banned! Namely, it has become difficult for ordinary people to rent apartments after thousands of landlords have put rooms and apartments out for short-term rentals. This has driven the prices up in the weather for regular tenants. One thousand administration dollars will also be lost to US network operators for each mission.
At the same time, Berlin is discussing the taxi market, rental markets and other new constructions, often called the sharing economy. Authorities should keep an eye on the residents' well-being. And this goes in the wrong direction, they believe, and puts his foot down.
Lobbyists for, for example, AirBnB and Uber have long been free to play with fascination for the new and untested economy made possible by modern digital technology. Keywords that "use, not own" appeal to trendy and cool globetrotters. You can live now. But sometimes you stumble across an attempt at analysis. About Uber's blessings, blogger Ida Karoline Bye says: “Of course, the big taxi companies don't like it. They have accepted monopolistic prices for multiple years. "
But this is probably inaccurate. Taxi is expensive. It is a car that must be safe. A driver who should have a salary. A passenger to be taken care of. Regulations have kept taxi prices down and ensured the functioning of the system.
The release and emergence of competing taxi companies recently got a taxi driver in Stockholm to charge me $ 700 for the 3,3 kilometer journey from the T-central to Hasselbacken. He probably had the law on his side. It is called "deregulation" and "liberalization" and has been on the global companies agenda for 30 years before it finally seems to loosen. Instead of millions of small taxis around the world, Uber and AirBnB and the like are turning away from consideration for jobs, security, overview. Away from society to the individual. You can no longer sit in a cab and expect to be treated fairly. You must "negotiate" or read the text in small steps on the outside of the cab. The trip from Gardermoen cost a friend NOK 1650, while a "competitor" could have offered the trip for 650 if I had had time to trawl the "market" outside the terminal. This is not to make the world better. That does not mean that Uber drivers are uglier than others. Many of them even smile, as does my driver in St. Petersburg ..
But the sharing economy is hiding behind an argument about using resources, critics believe. But it is driven by the opportunity to make fast money without big investments. Uber was created in 2009 and does not own a single cab. The company is currently priced by Google at over $ 200 billion. This money comes from somewhere. Owners operate via tax havens and the money ends up in already filled pockets in the big cities. Some call it "sharing economy."
There is every reason to supervise taxi companies, hotels and the rental market. That is why we have authorities. But competition can be devastating.
