Car Sharing Services Shaking Up the Market

In the past 48 hours I've seen two stories about car-sharing services in San Francisco and Los Angeles shaking up local paid-transportation markets to a point where lawsuits and confrontations are starting to brew. This kind of thing, while problematic on some levels, is an inevitable intermediate step as society begins to struggle with the market-based economy and searches for solutions that enable true gifting to form the basis of how we operate between and among one another. In San Francisco, a small startup launched by three teenagers is providing people who travel by flying out of the SF Airport a way to keep their cars safe while making money instead of paying what are often exorbitant parking fees. The company is being attacked by established taxi and limo companies and the airport authorities who all see economic interference taking place. Of course, that is exactly what is happening. In LA, three companies are recruiting local drivers -- many of them actors and actresses -- to use their own cars to drive people around the area at costs below taxi costs. Using smartphone technology, people needing a ride connect with drivers with cars available and ready to help. Again, local authorities are up in arms over what they see as unfair competition. In both cases, the services are busier than they can accommodate. That seems to be an indication that the companies currently setting out to meet these needs are failing to do so. When market fails to produce a solution people find acceptable, people find ways around those companies. I keep an eye on such developments both because of personal interest and because of my desire to keep TGE members abreast of things that point in the direction of the sharing/gifting solutions we all prefer. Let us know by posting comments of other things like this you hear about. Or share your opinion on these developments. Come on in. The conversation is fine!