uber

Jared Meyer, Research Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, released his mini book on the sharing economy today. The highly anticipated book chronicles how Americans are leveraging the power of peer to peer networks to make ends meet in a weak economy:

“Even in today’s slow economic recovery, entire industries are transforming, consumers are more powerful than before, and people are finding new ways to earn a living. All of these improvements stem from the so-called sharing economy.”

Meyer’s analysis highlights the importance of Uber for low income neighborhoods that are traditionally underserved by taxi services:

Uber’s expansion has benefited low- and middle-income outer-borough New Yorkers the most. These people live outside downtown and midtown – or core – Manhattan, in zip codes that are in the bottom half of New York City’s median household income.”

Despite the benefits the sharing economy gives low income Americans, some politicians and regulators are still trying – in the words of Hillary Clinton — to “crack down” on it:

“Even in the face of these benefits, innovation is in danger of being suppressed because of overzealous government regulations that protects existing businesses – all behind the façade of consumer safety.”

The book is available online here. Meyer’s sharing economy writings can be found here.