The Price of Wisdom

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There are 110 million power drills in the U.S., but there's a bunch of idiots like me that have four. The question is, why is it that we own so many things? And I claim that it's at least possible to think of an alternative where instead of owning it, I share it and I share it in a particular kind of way that economists call renting.

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.