Roll back further in history though and the notion of "owning things" was an invention - it wasn't that people wanted to "own a horse" - it's that the entire notion of ownership was invented to determine who got to "ride a horse when they wanted it".
For me, I don't want "to own a house with a lawn". I want "a convenient piece of grass to throw a football around, sit outside and eat lunch, and walk my dog". I don't want "to own a car" - rather, I want "A few times a month, access to a vehicle within a few blocks of my apartment for a few hours".
I think we're saying the same thing here, but the "sharing economy", is, more than anything else, about using communication technology to create finer grained matching between supply and demand - about matching access to goods with people who want to use them, about providing an opportunity to turn time into money and money into time to the extent that one needs and desires.
I don't buy your model of property. Sure, the specifics of legal systems are invented, but the basic idea of property was not, or if you like, they were invented by evolution.
The basic idea of property is that you decide a resource is your property, then you mark it in such a way that other people see your claim. Territorial animals do this, and it works. Not perfectly (no human system is perfect either), but they work.
The evolution part is how society comes to recognize territory markers, and which claims it respect and which it rejects. For an animal, the signal could be pheromones. If another animal smells a marker, they will tend to avoid that territory, because they know the "owner" will fight to the death if necessary, and the territory itself is worth less than the risk of taking the fight. But presumably, if an animal goes rogue and marks a huge area as its territory, there is a limit to what that animal society will respect. And of course, if resources get tight, things will break down into violence (just like in human society).
this sounds utopian. but if you didn't need the money would you go thru the hassle of sharing your car or house? the only reason people do it is to recover money because they didn't make enough to cover their lifestyle. others make it a business, renting multiple apartments in walkups and sell on airbnb creating private mini hotels.
i do not know one person that has a savings and or a decent salary that would let a stranger into their home, or drive a stranger to a destination because they just love to share what they have and participate. they do it because they are fucked or close to it.
the concept of the timeshare vacation rental is closer to reality of what you speak about. shared leases, mortgages, etc etc.
a startup that divides the credit potential of multiple people into a mortgage would be a real sharing, and be able to purchase into it for a time period.
i know i need to raise a family and need a 3 bedroom house for X time. Can I effectively purchase someones mortgage for 18 years at a premium on the base apr?
I'll provide a counter example: We are a Couchsurfing host because we have resources beyond out needs. Our house has four bedrooms, occupied by four rent paying tenants. We have couches and a single bed available in Northern Tasmania, if you're ever in the area look us up (email in profile). I have a well paid full time job, cash investments, as well as investments in precious metals and shares. I even pick up hitchhikers. If you're in to rock climbing, bicycle polo, music, camping, food (I'm a certified nutritionist), and building things (I'm a structural steel engineer and fabricator), we might even get along.
Couchsurfing is about projecting an "open" lifestyle, travelling etc. And it's done either by young people (to meet and "know better" other people) or by stable/upper middle class people.
Sharing in the sense of TFA, for money, is not the same.
I think he means more like Zipcar than some other sharing thing. Where you share from a corporation, it feels like sharing and is considered sharing but it's actually renting.
For me, I don't want "to own a house with a lawn". I want "a convenient piece of grass to throw a football around, sit outside and eat lunch, and walk my dog". I don't want "to own a car" - rather, I want "A few times a month, access to a vehicle within a few blocks of my apartment for a few hours".
I think we're saying the same thing here, but the "sharing economy", is, more than anything else, about using communication technology to create finer grained matching between supply and demand - about matching access to goods with people who want to use them, about providing an opportunity to turn time into money and money into time to the extent that one needs and desires.