Since the systematic corruption that led to the financial crisis of the late 2000s in the United States, there’s been a demand for reform and transformation in our economic system. Individuals, connected through peer-to-peer networks facilitated by technology, are changing the very way we exchange value and view money today.
The New Consumer
In What’s Mine is Yours, Rachel Botsman and Ron Rogers best describe this movement as collaborative consumption: “the rapid explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping reinvented through network technologies on a scale and in ways never possible before.” By moving from owning to sharing, individuals are ultimately able to get extra mileage out of any unwanted or idling goods.
Charles Eisenstein also taps into the spirit of this sustainable consumption movement in his book Sacred Economics:
 “You don’t get virtue points for poverty; nonaccumulation is not a goal in and of itself. The goal is to enjoy true wealth, the wealth of connection and flow, rather than the counterfeit wealth of having.”
Eisenstein’s vision advocates a return to hunter-gatherer values in light of the destruction that endless economic growth has brought upon the United States. Hunter-gatherer societies in the past were characterized by great abundance and no accumulation. Prestige also went to those who gave the most, rather than those who owned the most.
Access Not Ownership
In many ways, collaborative consumption is enabling us to enjoy what Eisenstein refers to as “true wealth, the wealth of connection and flow.” College students, for example, spend on average $1,137 on textbooks per academic school year. Rather than owning these textbooks, students can have access to them through textbook rental services like Chegg. We can now go abroad and find housing through peer-to-peer travel-share like Airbnb or even have access to a car without owning one through services like Zipcar and RelayRide.
These networks that allow individuals to gift, trade, rent, and barter are in fact fostering community and finally generating trust amongst strangers once again on a daily basis. Although rapidly expanding, peer-to-peer services born out of collaborative consumption are impossible without participation at the individual level. What are your experiences with these services? Do they change the way you spend money and live?
Recommended reading: Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein, What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live by Rachel Botsman and Ron Rogers, What Comes After Money? Essays from Reality Sandwich on Transforming Currency & Community edited by Daniel Pinchbeck & Ken Jordan
