Comments about ‘Collaborative consumption on the rise around the world as experts debate how large the practice will grow’

Sorry folks, "collaborative" will never be bigger than the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution produced things, "collaborative" produces nothing, it just moves goods around, great idea and something Americans have been doing for decades, but it will pass if the economy every improves.

As the article mentions, the idea is not new. It is simply being adapted and adopted by a computer-enabled generation. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The real difference is found in analysis of the meta-neighborhoods this sort of approach engenders. The danger is (as we teach our kids) you never quite know who is on the other side of the computer chat. Cyber-communities lack the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) clues that traditional human contact brings with it. Thus, our interaction with each other is rarely as deep and fulfilling on-line as it is in person.

Cyber communities create a sense of being alone-in-a-crowd. But so does "hyper-consumerism."

The waves rise, crash and fall. But the sea remains. Trends rise and fall. But our basic need for honest, true and deep connection with each other remains.

So if I hear about it on FOX news it's proof that communism is taking over the world right? You can't have 100 bicycles used 80 percent of the time, we must have a bicycle for every person used 1 percent of the time. Good ol greed efficiency model.

@Screwdriver

Don't really understand yours analogy,

nor your hatred for Fox news, must be a liberal thing.

But I would rather live in a world or country were anyone can get a bicycle if they choose, and use it as little or as much as they wanta nd can share it or not share it at my choosing,

that is capitalism,

Not in world or country were everyone is forced to use a bicycle, or one where I am forced to share my bicycle, or one where one is not allowed to own a bicycle or where government at can take your bicycle away from you at will.

That is communism or socialism.