Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous
The article identifies some problems but totally misses their actual source. The problem isn&#x27;t that we own less stuff, it&#x27;s that the ownership is replaced by a dependency on a handful of corporations which we have no ability to influence or appeal to.<p>The substitution of individual ownership for a communal one in which individuals retain a stake - a real community, or at a larger scale, a democracy - is not inherently bad. The problem with our recent trend is that we aren&#x27;t getting communal ownership in return; we&#x27;re getting nothing but convenience.<p>Silicon Valley has morphed and commercialized the term &quot;sharing&quot;. You aren&#x27;t &quot;sharing&quot; when you use Uber or AirBnB; you aren&#x27;t pooling resources when you use Netflix or Amazon Books. You&#x27;re renting. You&#x27;re renting from a centralized company which outsources the generation of actual value to others, and pays them as little as possible. You aren&#x27;t shifting your dependence from yourself to a community, but from yourself to a company that wants nothing more than to make money.