As for the claim that "these companies" are "pushing all of the risks onto individuals", I would cite the $1,000,000 insurance policy that Airbnb provides the host to take the risk off of them: https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee
It's not their fault. However, AirBnB, Uber and all the other serfitude economy ilk would get a lot less static if the at least tried to incentivize people in order to serve these kinds of underserved areas. Instead, they're trying to elbow their way into the already well-served markets--often while ignoring the law.
> As for the claim that "these companies" are "pushing all of the risks onto individuals", I would cite the $1,000,000 insurance policy that Airbnb provides
Did you read the page you linked? Did you note that it doesn't cover "personal liability"? Which is the whole reason you would likely need $1,000,000 in insurance? And I guarantee that your personal liability insurance won't cover AirBnB rentals.
Given the size of pool and statistics that AirBnB has, the fact that AirBnB doesn't just insure everybody tells me exactly what I need to know. I trust AirBnB's actuaries, and those actuaries have basically said "unprofitable if we cover everybody properly".
So, yeah, my point still stands about "pushing all of the risks onto individuals". These companies are masters of the "$1 MEEEEELLLYON DOLLARS" while burying the important asterisk "*it doesn't actually apply to anything you'd need help for" in the quiet fine print.
I think its a simple numbers thing. Lets say one household in Kittanning is interested in working with AirBnB. For the sake of argument and easy numbers, let's say a household is the platonic 4 people, that's 0.1% of the population. In New York, assuming the same percentage of people that would be willing to be AirBnB rentals and the same household size, that's almost 8500 possible units available for rent.
>serfitude economy
Really? That's a fine description for the terrible 'contractor' jobs, but it doesn't fit renting a room at all. AirBnB makes their hosts less serf-y, with a completely different set of externalities.
How about--because I find the serfitude economy ineffective outside areas that are already well-served through other mechanisms.
Most of these middlemen are actively interfering in the most profitable cities and areas while ignoring those places where they would actively be useful because they are less profitable.
People would find AirBnB, Uber, et al. much less distasteful if they weren't interfering in dense cities where there is existing infrastructure and were instead focusing on areas that are underserved and would welcome them very much. (For an AirBnB example see: Kittanning, PA--almost nothing in spite of the fact that there are no hotels--heaven help you if you need a hotel while helping with a sick relative in that area during graduation season, leaf viewing season, or the start of hunting season--even normal times in winter are difficult because the hotels have quite a driving distance in bad weather).
Add in the fact that these same companies are taking a middleman cut of money in return for pushing all of the risks onto individuals and externalizing the costs onto the general public.
Top it off with the fact that said middleman generally knows that the end users are actively flouting the law.