Great column. As you say, “sharing” is the wrong word. The correct one is “renting.” Basically, people are only producing tools that create a different, wider, group of rentors without being subject to consumer protection regulations.

On the worker side, in one of my columns I called the Uber and Lyft drivers the new version of sharecroppers — “shareworkers.”

A Shareworker Is Nothing More Than An Old-Time Sharecropper In Fancy New Clothes.

I ran some Uber numbers for a few trips and calculated that after considering the real costs for the car, depreciation, fuel, insurance, etc. the driver was making between $7.92/hour and $9.69/hour without any overtime, sick leave, medical, worker’s comp insurance, or retirement.

What a horrible deal. But most of the drivers don’t include depreciation and long-term maintenance and repair costs in their calculations so they don’t understand how little they’re actually earning.

— David Grace