Sharing is caring! Rishabh
I have had many crushes in life. Countless, I believe. Crushing on someone is probably my favourite past time activity (But that’s a story for some other time). However, I do like to believe that I have learnt something from each one of them xD
This is a story of how one of my crushes, educated me about the future of world, when I was fourteen. She never intended to, but it unlocked a series of chain events that led me to make some “drastic” life choices.
I was born into a family, which idolises capitalism. Thus, owning “things” was a consistent theme of my childhood. I owned “my” football, “my” bat, “my” school bag and of course “my” lunch among other things.
So of course, it now comes as a huge surprise, to many friends and acquaintances from school, that I don’t know how to drive a car. Isn’t driving car supposed to be the ultimate expression of ownership and freedom for a young adult?!?! I have been derided (no pun intended) by my family constantly, for not making any effort at all to learn this skill.
But you see, dear reader, my world changed when I was fourteen. I realised that I can’t do everything on my own, and I should not strive to. Probably no one should.
Take driving for example. I estimate an average urban dweller working in Gurgaon and living in Delhi, spends roughly 15% of their conscious hours in a week, driving from home to work and vice versa. That’s 15% of your adult life, wasted on watching traffic, stopping and starting your vehicle. Plus, you probably spent 90% of your annual salary to use 10% capacity of this vehicle. PHEWWWW! That’s a lot of inefficiency.
This exact insight is the reason why we have the likes of Uber, Lyft, Ola, Bounce, Vogo, Airbnb and so many other amazing startups. They allowed the likes of me to never learn the basic survival skills of 2010s. What an amazing time to be alive! Right? (My therapist said this).
However, this certain development of shared economy will come with its own share of implications, which we must be wary and cognizant of. The non-exhaustive list, I conjured up is below:
- Individuals won’t have to make big-ticket purchases anymore. How will this impact retail savings? What would we save for?
- How will this affect our standard of living?
- How will this impact the poverty levels in the world?
- How would this affect the valuation of tangible assets? Would every shareable asset turn into a financial asset?
- Will the world will move towards higher utilisation of assets? (Hey! Mr. Smith)
I don’t know answers to all of these questions, right now. I aim to just share this food for thought. Which actually brings me back to my childhood story.
*crush asks me to share lunch with her-
Me: “NO, sorry, I don’t share”
Her: “Don’t you know what they say?”
Me: “What?”
Her (irritated): “Sharing is caring! Rishabh”
Me: “LOL, who says that”
Of course, we never dated.
