A toothbrush is relatively inexpensive, so you always want to compare the cost of ownership to the benefits of renting. "I don't really want to trot out to the smart pod and pick up my handle for my toothbrush," he says. A smart apartment building would be designed for this kind of reduction in transaction costs.
Economist and author Michael Munger of Duke University talks about his book, Tomorrow 3.0, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Munger analyzes the rise of companies like Uber and AirBnB as an example of how technology lowers transactions costs. Users and providers can find each other more easily through their smartphones, increasing opportunity. Munger expects these costs to fall elsewhere and predicts an expansion of the sharing economy to a wide array of items in our daily lives.