> I thought it was about unused/wasted time/resources that could be shared (for some profit).
This is the fiction sold by AirBnB, Uber, etc. You just can’t grow forever (as these companies require) by “sharing.” Do you think investors would continue to happily light billions on fire if Uber didn’t have huge ambitions?
This is very similar to Etsy. Founded as a handmade marketplace until they realized not enough people make stuff by hand to keep growing. Now it’s just a mass-produced shit shop just like every other place.
That's because these companies have purposefully misrepresented themselves as part of the sharing economy despite the fact that their core business models are nothing like Freecycle or Couchsurfer, or even like casual carpooling.
Corps likely airbnb and uber should probably go back to building their platforms to promote occasional resource assignment rather than permanent.