Play all audios:
The rise of the "sharing economy" — Uber, Feastly, Airbnb, and the like — has been causing some consternation as of late.
One complaint is that these companies are competing unfairly: Their business model allows them to skirt the regulations that apply to traditional taxi or restaurant companies. Another
complaint is more subtle, but more frightening: that these technologies are exacerbating inequality and driving us towards a "servant" economy, where large pools of poorly paid and
economically insecure workers will spend their lives providing all manner of petty services for the well-heeled elite.
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry laid out the grim logic succinctly: The efficiency gains of connecting workers to customers via the internet applications will drive down prices and thus incomes, while
the new profits created will all get sucked up by the small group of Silicon Valley companies that created the platforms, along with their shareholders.
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.