Columnist Jack Davies argues that Athens should allow services like Airbnb and Uber.
Despite this week’s presidential primaries, I want to address a local issue. Yeah, yeah all politics are local, but really I’m addressing an actual local issue that affects you as students. I’m talking about the ongoing campaign on behalf of city authorities to limit the sharing economy. What is the sharing economy? To put it simply, the sharing economy is represented by a number of goods and services that allow people to share their property for a profit. Examples include freelance, work-as-you-go taxi service Uber and room rental service Airbnb.
So, the question might be asked: Why should I care? As you know, we live in a time of rising student debt and unemployment without very many outlets. For students this can be overwhelming, especially for those who have to pay for rent and groceries. Services in the sharing economy allow entrepreneurial students to work for themselves and make as much money as people are willing to pay without significant start up costs.
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You could drive your car around during free time in order to earn a few bucks, or you perhaps rent out your couch to travellers for a fee. So what does the city believe is wrong with the sharing economy? Well, it treats them exactly the same as large-scale businesses. The city has deterred that Airbnb rentals constitute commercial activity and thus need to be confined to commercial zones.
Several people who have been involved with the sharing economy in Athens have recently received cease and desist orders issued to their residences. Commercial zones are for the confinement of noisy, dirty, dangerous and high traffic activities to a particular area of the city. These regulations are unfair, and as far as I know, no specific complaints were lodged to the city. Athens is not blocked by a veritable flock of free-lance taxi drivers, and a legion of couch surfers haven’t suddenly gone on a manic littering rampage.
It seems an instinctual idea that in the American political tradition, no one has the right to interfere with one’s property if the use of that property isn’t harming anyone else. The burden of proof for instances of harm are on the city, and in the absence of proven harm, the city has no reason to regulate the service. Does it want to tax it? Perhaps. Do it honestly believe that it is trying to protect the consumer (the services themselves have mechanisms that allow for this)? Maybe. But I don’t care because in the absence of proven harm, the regulation of Airbnb is petty and unasked for.
Such regulation harms students by closing off access to services that would allow them to use entrepreneurship and enterprise to better themselves. I urge you all to oppose this program of regulation and liberate the couch! Keep the sharing economy in Athens and allow for people to enrich themselves in the spirit of American enterprise for years to come.
Jack Davies is a sophomore studying philosophy and the Honors Tutorial College senator in Student Senate. Do you think Airbnb rentals should be allowed in Athens? Email him at jd814213@ohio.edu.
