From Sharing Economy to Scaring Economy

_{here it is (for Italian readers only). A couple of weeks ago, before coming across Hive (thanks again to @phage93 and @discovery-it for introducing me here), I wrote an article on my Linkedin profile about some observations regarding these hard times we're all living due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since that article was in Italian and I really wanna share my thoughts on Hive, I want to adapt that article in order for me to speak to the broad and International community of Hive. This adaptation therefore is going to be entirely in English and will definitely slightly differ from the original one. If you're willing to still take a look at the original article,}

_{5' reading}

I don't want to share data, scientific information, statistics and or any first-page kinda news on economics. This is a fact now: sharing scares us .

_{Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels}

This is likely to be a series of observations from the kind of person who has never loved crowds, in fact! Instead, more than anything else, I've always found smart the concept of sharing. Sharing of information, knowledge, expertise, services and, of course, the most commonly used, sharing of objects.

GreenWhite(Yellow)Red Sharing | AKA Italian and Roman kinds of Sharing Economy

Sharing economy has taken a long time to find its stability and set in Italy, the country where everyone looks at their own backyard, but where people think the grass is always greener on the other side, and that's enough for a living. However, in the last few years and months (I mean before the pandemic) the sharing phenomenon has become greater and greater, especially in Rome, "my" city.

Enjoy Car2Go, bike sharing start-ups and so on... their time seemed to have finally come: just like a revolution.
All those sharing-like ways of moving around the city were also about to infect even me, and notoriously I'm just used to going around riding the very same small and almost power-less 'vespa' since 2010 (that's only 50 CC, just to give you an idea!)

And then the pandemic took us. Now the question is not just how the hell companies and start-ups living by sharing economy are supposed to overcome and survive the pandemic; instead, the real question here is how much this crisis (also the existential side of it) is totally re-discussing our physical, personal and social borders... I don't even want to discuss about the political ones.

I do not mean the very common Italian phrase "we will back to to embrace each other", an actual slogan of dozens of TVads recently, is completely empty and meaningless, but it is 99% meaningless. And that's not just because it is a slogan; rather it is totally dreamy, unrealistic. "Just Do It" is also a nice tagline, but it is motivational too. "We will come back to hug each other" only motivates me to lock myself in the house, and this time with no law decree to order that.

What I really mean is that we are slowly stepping back toward a fearful economic and social system. Being afraid of the others, of getting infected, of not being able to move because Italians will be considered the plague spreaders for a long time... in Europe as well as outside. We are scared of surviving as opposed to living, ultimately. Among all those observations, I find myself to be the actual standard-bearer of Fear, so all I'm saying here is not a criticism, but a though, again. (Maybe the word Anxiety instead of Fear sounds better, or maybe not ... I don't know).

However, since I don't want to report large numbers and statistics (many journalists and experts better than me have already done, are doing, and will continue to do it), I noticed how more evident, if not intrusive, it is getting what I define as the "Scaring Economy". And I am not referring only to the fact that even the butchery of the neighborhood down the street, is following the trend by making and selling masks; instead I am talking about a situation where we are all stuck and can't help but being continuously exposed to and influenced by media to buy products and services which keep us away from each other, in the name of the "social distancing" rules. Most of the time though, no one says this, social distancing, products, and services supposedly healthy and safe against Covid-19 are just excessive, and even useless. And the companies that produce them are making a living out of our Fear, magnifying it and increasing its intensity.

_{Frame from Pink Floyd's movie "The Wall"}

Incentives for car purchases, special Government bonuses for buying bicycles and scooters, renewals of layoffs (I know this last one is a sensitive subject): all those are useless, counterproductive to fight back a pandemic crisis. Luckily, before I did, some more competent expert already thought about all this and explained it in an interview for

IlSole24Ore Italian newspaper:

"Emergency State aid to families and businesses is inevitable at this stage. But it must be a starting point to begin again and have a multiplier effect on the system by encouraging people's consumption and investment. Burdening companies with new debts gives a little bit of breath but it is not the solution ». Orlando Barucci, president of Vitale & C., the financial consultancy company founded by Guido Roberto Vitale. This is the article

Instead of taking the topic from the economic-financial point of view, I instead wanna deal with it more from the relational-social perspective. The idea is the same though: the only difference is that people, with subsidies and incentives, are provided with Carbon Dioxide instead of oxygen. Lemme explain better.

As already said, I am not here to express political judgments or give great lessons to those who lead Italian Government. I only wonder if pushing on subsidies and funding has no other results than instilling in us the desire (or the need) to lock ourselves, to remain still and distant: hence increasing our Fears.

If the Government is guilty (but also whorthy!), all of us, citizens, have the civic and social responsibility to be brave, which does not mean 'not being afraid'. Courage means 'not being afraid of fear', but to recognize it and to face it.

As I said, I am the standard bearer of Anxiety. But that doesn't make me overwhelmed by it. Rather, I get stimulated by anxiety. If Fear leads us to think that it is dangerous to use public transportations, this does not mean we have to buy a new car or a scooter (which is not even recommended around Rome, unlike any other place where the asphalt remains where it is supposed to be). It is certainly also right to be afraid of taking candies from strangers, but that is called "common sense": doing it was wrong even pre-pandemic.

Basically Fear must be managed. Is it fair to be scared? Yes. Is it ok to stop and do nothing in order to avoid dangerous situations? No. But let's act smartly. If science experts have been telling us for months that the infection occurs in crowded places, where people scream, then perhaps a demonstration in a square with thousands of people is not the most suitable place to avoid the pandemic spread. Don't you think? [sarcasm]

I don't know, I just want to understand something. I feel lucky though: my sport makes all wet laundry (because I'm a swimmer), but guess what?! Chlorine kills everything. I feel safe only when I dive into the water, in a swimming pool! Swimming pool managers and directors, listen to me: this is a great starting point for a little real-time marketing strategy, seize the day!

_{[... as you can see, there is no conclusion. I haven't gotten to one yet. The conclusions are for beautiful comedies, but this story seems to me to be an endless thriller. If you have a conclusion, please write it in the comments]}

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brittandjosie (76) 5 years ago

Life is an ongoing triller

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flewsplash (66) 5 years ago

Yes, I couldn't agree more @brittandjosie

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