How the ‘sharing economy’ devalues middle-class jobs

The so-called “sharing economy” has come to mean cheaper transportation, vacations, music. But who is it hurting? Daily News senior writer Will Bunch meditates on the darker side of the sharing economy — and the technology industry in general.

In 2014, we don’t even give a second thought to the services that we used to pay other people to provide. I can’t remember the last time I used a travel agent or even had to deal with an airline reservation agent, thanks to Travelocity, Expedia, etc. — and most likely you can’t either. Of course, in the near future, some of the hotels that you might have booked on Travelocity will be gone, as more and more people use Airbnb, the UberX of accommodations, to stay in somebody’s spare guest room instead of the Holiday Inn Express down the street. Journalists like me whine a lot (see previous paragraph) about job losses in the newsroom, but I feel equally as bad about the rows of classified-ad takers down the hallway that have disappeared, thanks to free advertising on Craigslist.