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Share With Strangers . . . Shrink the Government

Share With Strangers . . . Shrink the Government

By Heather Wilhelm - June 26, 2014

What will it take to convince more Americans that big government isn’t their friend? This week’s IRS hearings, in which officials from America’s Scariest Accounting Agency made it clear that they basically seized a bunch of incriminating computers, pummeled them with hatchets, and tossed them in a giant, gasoline-soaked bonfire—without actually admitting that they did this, of course—probably won’t hurt.

The still-unraveling Veterans Affairs scandal—in which “premium” government health care, sometimes delivered by actual sex offenders, reportedly resulted in the untimely deaths of more than 1,000 veterans—probably won’t hurt either.

Washington, D.C.’s, top-notch, awe-inspiring disaster export industry is, of course, is nothing new. But thanks to government-funded PR, shoddy news coverage, or, perhaps, the pure mental exhaustion of the American people, many massive governmental screw-ups end up slipping down the memory hole.

This seems to be particularly true for the millennial generation. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, 53 percent of America’s 18-to-33-year-olds “favored a bigger government providing more services—the highest of any generation.” Only 38 percent, apparently, would rather not have a jaded government employee intimately involved with their future colonoscopies.

Not coincidentally, millennials also harbor a significant distrust of their fellow man. Just 19 percent of them agree that “most people can be trusted,” and most, Pew reports, show a “significant detachment from traditional institutions.” Put these ingredients together and you have a pretty solid explanation for the millennials’ leap on the government’s highly questionable good-time-promises bandwagon. If you have no natural sense of community, and if you’re not glued to the slow-motion, mostly boring horror show brought to you by C-SPAN, big government and concentrated power might make sense.

There is reason, however, for hope—and it comes from non-political quarters. Last month, Wired magazine featured a Brady Bunch-style quartet of strangers on its cover.

“I have the keys to your house,” says the caption next to a bearded guy in a robe, clutching a red coffee mug. “I am sleeping in your bed,” he adds. Below him, a young woman hoists a leash: “I am watching your dog.” The guy next to her is busy adjusting his hat: “I am driving your car.” The cover story’s title, which stretches across the strangers in boldface type, is “TRUST ME.”

The article goes on to describe how “the sharing economy,” with companies like AirBNB, in which people rent their houses to strangers, and Lyft, in which car owners essentially run their own cab services, are building networks of trust across America. Upstart, tech-driven businesses are creating more affordable vacation lodgings, better transportation opportunities, and more flexible service options for pets, power tools, boats, and more—all from interaction and trust between complete strangers. “This is not just an economic breakthrough,” writes Wired’s Jason Tanz. “It is a cultural one. … In the sharing economy, the commerce feels almost secondary, an afterthought to the human connection that undergirds the entire experience.”

The majority of millennials may not be regularly poring over the Congressional Record, but they do care about affordable hotels and convenient rides home from the bar—and when it comes to the booming sharing economy, it’s painfully obvious that big government is not a helping hand.

Local governments across the country are fighting tooth and nail to protect their various cartels, boondoggles, and state-based monopolies, all at the expense of the consumer. The wildly popular Uber and Lyft car services are still banned from several cities, thanks to collusion between government and taxi cab companies. Earlier this month, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles banned both Uber and Lyft statewide, citing unmet “regulations.” In English, this likely translates as “making our traditional, half-baked, state-backed cab services look really crappy.”

Opponents of sharing services like AirBNB, Uber, and Lyft often rely on horror stories, citing prostitutes turning tricks in people’s houses or warning of careless, dangerous Uber drivers—a dicey strategy, considering that these things happen in traditional hotels and cab services all the time. The true push to squelch people-helping startups comes from an old, sputtering, broken-down philosophy: stifling, command-and-control economics paired with a nice, heaping helping of nosy big government. If there’s any way to make millennials skeptical of the state, siding against startups—and ultimately against innovation and, well, fun—might just be it.

The “sharing economy” is still new, and it will likely face a few hiccups as it grows and evolves. One thing, however, is clear: For the most part, it is making people’s lives better. America’s thriving startup culture is expanding in unexpected ways, fostering a growing sense of community and civil society while emphasizing creative, decentralized solutions that have nothing to do with government.

This is good news for freedom enthusiasts in general, and it is great news for anyone who values the free market in particular. Here’s the even better news: You don’t have to be a hard-core libertarian to get the joke. America’s dynamic, growing startup culture bridges 1,000 gaps. It is organic, apolitical, trans-partisan, and does not care if you like Barack Obama or Ayn Rand. It gives people a very personal look at the positive power of free markets—and as such, it presents a huge opportunity for freedom lovers of all stripes.

The government, of course, will meddle. Some meddling, depending on the circumstance, might be reasonable. The bulk of it, as states and cities across the country have demonstrated, won’t be. Good luck with that, government. On this issue, everybody’s watching. Most are rooting for freedom. 

Heather Wilhelm is a writer based in Austin,Texas. Her work can be found at  http://www.heatherwilhelm.com/ and her Twitter handle is @heatherwilhelm.

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