What The Heck Is A Sharing Economy?

       Have you ever heard of the Sharing Economy, or a Micro-Entrepreneur? They're new, but old, ideas of how to get by in modern America. Stephen Strauss had an article in the Huffington Post yesterday and Thomas Freidman has written about it. It's all about how people, lots of people, are forced by their economic circumstances to make do, share, barter and "get by", because they can't earn enough to live on. See what I mean by a lot of people?
       Strauss tells about how his immigrant parents were forced to do these same things back in the late 1930s. Rent out a spare room, or actually rent someone else's spare room, work day jobs or any odd job that would pay cash, even for an hour or two. Trading hard work for a meal or two.
       On the other hand there were those who were able to live a life of luxury. Did you know, the inequality between the haves and the have nots was very similar in the 1920s and 30s to what exists today? In fact in 1928, the top 1% received 23.9% of all pretax income while the bottom 90% got 50.7%. Nowadays we're just about in the same position. But of course if you mention it, those same 1% cry class warfare. Well, I don't doubt the existence of class warfare, in fact I think it's been building for about 30 years. But it's happening the other way. The very wealthy have been grinding the rest of us into the dust in their quest for ever more riches at the expense of everyone else.
       So what's the point of my ranting? My point is that even though statistics show an improved economy, with income growing stronger day by day, all the economic improvement keeps flowing to those 1% and the rest of us are being left in that dust I mentioned. So again, what's my point?
       My point is that the 1920s and 30s ended up in the Great Depression and forced a lot of redistribution of wealth through legislation and taxation. But after a couple of decades, things started swinging back in favor of the wealthy. Well, at some point that 90% will force those same changes. It may take a while and it may look different, it might even be more ugly, but one thing's for sure, Americans won't stand for this inequality for ever. Nor should they.