Last October, folks in more than 50 cities around the world sat down to map out their local “shared economies” — goods and services that are available to anyone and that encourage common ownership and investment. Spearheaded by the San Francisco-based Shareable, these “map jams” used a map-making tool kit developed by the nonprofit to organize information about each community’s common resources: parks, libraries, cooperatives, credit unions, community gardens and other assets whose use is not tied to a fixed monetary exchange.
If this is the case, then why the donkey did Buncombe County have to create a Parks & Recreation Authority with special taxing powers to protect green spaces and public libraries from revenue cuts?
The blurb goes on to suggest the project’s data might be used, for example, by people who wanted to tour without participating in the tourist economy. Now, sharing is a good thing, but I thought it was a two-way street. Even the commies had that bit about “and from each . . . .” And so my little mind asks what happens when an industry is undercut. How does it survive, and how do those offering things for free get their money to make the offerings?
