Libertarians’ Sneaky New Crusade

http://www.alternet.org/economy/libertarians-sneaky-new-crusade



Over the past six years in Oakland, California, a woman named Asiya Wadud has organized a community effort to share the produce of local, privately owned fruit trees. In the East Bay, fruit from that fig or Meyer lemon tree in the backyard often goes to waste at harvest time. In “Forage Oakland,” Wadud created a structure that encourages those who have to easily share their bounty with those who don’t. There’s no profit incentive, and signing on to the project turns out be a great way to meet your neighbors.

This, pretty much everyone would agree, is an inspiring example of the “sharing economy.”

I became acquainted with Wadud’s story last Sunday night via a short documentary shown at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater. But I had hardly finished digesting its heartfelt message of community connection when, on Monday, my Twitter feed filled up with stories about a cease-and-desist letter sent by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera to a start-up called Monkey Parking.

Monkey Parking is an app that enables auctioning off public parking spots to the highest bidder. Another, very similar parking app also deemed illegal went one step further: actively offering to pay car owners to squat in parking spaces, so as to provide valuable bootstrapping inventory.

This, pretty much everyone would agree, is an example of how the “sharing economy” can be totally bullshit.