Uber-Positive: Why Americans Love the Sharing Economy

Description

Entire industries are being transformed, consumers have more power than ever before, and people are finding new ways to earn a living-even in today's slow economic recovery. All of these improvements stem from the rise of the so-called sharing economy. Even in the face of these benefits, innovation is in danger of being suppressed because of overzealous government regulation that protects existing businesses-all behind the facade of consumer safety. This book chronicles Uber's battle against the New York City taxi industry and its supporters in the government. It also shows the need to stand up for entrepreneurs and the vast benefits that they provide for consumers. As innovators tirelessly work to drive the economy forward, too often regulators function as annoying backseat drivers or roadblocks.

Jared Meyer is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. His research interests include microeconomic theory and the economic effects of government regulations. He is the coauthor with Diana Furchtgott-Roth of Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America's Young (Encounter Books, May 2015). Meyer's research has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, RealClearPolitics, National Review, and City Journal, among others. He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows hosted by the BBC World Service, Fox News, ABC, Al Jazeera America, and NPR. Meyer received a BS in finance and a minor in the philosophy of law from St. John's University in New York.

"The war against the sharing or gig economy is the struggle of the dead hand of the past against a forward looking, flexible, consumer-driven future. It is a world war--a war of different possible worlds--being played out on a dozen fronts in many nations. Jared Meyer's "Uber Positive" is an up front and personal view of the struggle in one iconic city: New York, where the forces of stasis are fat, happy and politically entrenched." --Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform