Sharing vs. Solidarity Economy

I have written about the “sharing economy” before. You know, the Uber/Lyft/Airbnb economy, where people bypass the corporations and “share” their car or a spare bedroom in exchange for payment. I’d never really questioned the name or the concept until recently when Uber came under fire for profiting from Trump’s immigration ban by offering rides to airport customers during the protests in late January. And then there was matter of Uber’s CEO being part of President Trump’s economic advisory council…

I realized there is a corporate machine behind each one of these platforms, and they are taking wealth accumulation to a whole new level. Airbnb’s last valuation was $31 billion. Uber’s is $69 billion. That’s about $10 million per employee. Let that sink in for a minute.

So when a friend recently questioned the term “sharing economy” for this phenomenon, I was unsure how to respond. Can we really call it a sharing economy when it’s simply a new (sometimes illegal) way for individuals to make money as freelancers and for technology startups to make obscene amounts of money?

In the Upstream Podcast episode, “The Sharing Economy,” professor Keally McBride says no. She prefers to call it the “gig economy.” This makes much more sense to me. The gig economy also includes services such as TaskRabbit and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. At best, the gig economy offers people flexible work and a way to make ends meet. At worst, it is exploitative and a new form of servitude. It doesn’t move us closer to a more equitable society—if anything, it moves us further away. And it’s still capitalism, just packaged in a peer-to-peer, easy-to-use app.

The Solidarity Economy

The solidarity economy is a much more promising framework, if we’re thinking about displacing our oppressive capitalist economic system and optimizing our society for wellbeing. Upstream Podcast describes it as follows:

A phenomenon that has existed throughout centuries both within and alongside capitalism wherever and whenever relationships have been based on reciprocity, sustainability, and democratic governance as opposed to competition, exploitation, and blind profit-maximization.

Examples of institutions and concepts that are part of the solidarity economy include fair trade, worker cooperatives, labor unions, open source development, solidarity lending, and free stores.

With roots in South America, the solidarity economy has helped decrease poverty in Brazil, where “1.8 million people work in the solidarity economy system.” Importantly, “it’s not just about job. It’s a different way of thinking about the economic model, which includes environmental concerns and emancipation of both women and men.”

Can you think of ways to participate more in a solidarity economy and less in the capitalist economy? A few ideas:

• Swap clothes with your friends
• Work in a cooperative business
• Advocate for municipal utilities in your community
• Shop at member-owned grocery stores (often called “food co-ops”)
• Create a lending library for things (tools, camping gear, etc.)
• Buy fair trade products whenever possible
• Choose Firefox browser (open source) over Chrome (Google)

A beautiful aspect of the solidarity economy is the strengthening of relationships and a sense of community. You really can’t have one without the other. And isn’t this really what we’re looking for? Deep connections, security, a meaningful life. The solidarity economy can show us the way.