Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
In the year 2100, we’re all renters
In the year 2100, we’re all renters
Mar 15, 2025 10:19 PM

Predictions about the future have a checkered past. But Michael Munger’s recent book “Tomorrow 3.0: Transaction Costs and the Sharing Economy,” born out a few of his many appearances on the popular podcast EconTalk, at least makes its prognostications based on current trends and reasoned economic principles. Munger predicts what he dubs the Middleman/Sharing Revolution, in which software and digital tools increasingly lower transaction costs and make it more profitable to share or rent “stuff” than to own it. In the year 2100, people will think it quaint that folks used to own and store so much stuff that they rarely used. He argues that the trend toward the sharing and renting economy has already begun in endeavors like Uber and Airbnb, which connect excess capacity with consumer needs.

Whether Munger is right about all of this, or any of it, time alone will tell. But his book raises some important questions about the nature and future of ownership. In a recent conversation, a friend remarked to me that we live in a rental society and that there is an increasing resistance, especially among younger Americans, mit to long-term relationships, to home ownership, or to anything. This was the sort of off-the-cuff mentary that a person says in private and hopes will never appear in a public forum—or on a blog (hence my omission of his name, but he knows who he is). The reality may not be so much that young people are afraid mitment, or that people prefer renting to owning, but that owning and renting are not that far apart. As Munger notes repeatedly, what people usually want with ownership is not the good itself, but its use and benefit at their discretion. Ownership is one way of securing a good’s use and benefit on demand, but it’s not the only way. In fact ownership, Munger notes, may be just a more enduring kind of renting. We might add that certain forms of ownership and purchase, such as homeownership or the purchase of an expensive undergraduate education, can seem more like long-term—or even interminable—renting.

Munger is optimistic that a rental—or a sharing—economy may not be all bad. In fact this idea may have some resonance with a Christian view of property and ownership, since human beings do not own anything in an absolute sense anyway. We are all stewards and servants of the Creator. Although the old song by Jim Reeves is ridiculed as other-worldly and creation-denying in certain swaths of Christianity, perhaps this world really is not our home. Perhaps we’re just a rentin’ through.

Featured image:Kotivalo [CC BY-SA 4.0]

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Dutch Resistance Member Diet Eman Meets King and Queen of the Netherlands
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands visited Frederik Meijer Gardens and the Medical Mile in Grand Rapids on June 2, marking the third time in history that Dutch royalty stepped foot in Michigan. The occasion, which served as an opportunity for Michigan and the Netherlands to express gratitude for their strong economic ties and trade relations, and to continue this cooperation, also proved special in another way. As part of the day’s festivities, the King and Queen were...
Court to U.S. Army: You Allow Vampire Mickey Mouse Tattoos, Why Not a Turban?
If the Army can make an exception to its regulations for a vampire Mickey Mouse tattoo, why can it not do the same for a turban? That was part of a federal court’s thinking in a ruling ordering the Army to allow a Sikh college student to join his college’s NROTC unit without having to shave his beard, cut his hair, or remove his turban. Iknoor Singh, a junior at Hofstra University and an observant Sikh, has “long dreamed of...
Michigan Lawmakers Approve Legislation Allowing Adoption Refusals on Religious Grounds
Every year about 400,000 children spend time in our nation’s foster care system, with roughly 100,000 eligible for adoption. Yet despite this urgent need for parents, note Sarah Torre and Ryan T. Anderson, “various states have adopted policies that would require faith-based providers to place children with same-sex couples, in violation of some agencies’ deeply held beliefs that children deserve a mom and a dad—effectively forcing these agencies out of adoption and foster care service.” In a refreshing change from...
Explainer: What You Should Know About the OPM Hack
What is the “OPM hack”? The “OPM hack” refers to a massive data breach in which hackers, believed to be based in China, acquired personnel records of federal employees from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). What is the OPM? The OPM (Office of Personnel Management) serves as the human resource department for the federal government. Among other duties the agency conducts background investigations for prospective employees, issues security clearances, piles records of all federal government employees. How many records...
Crank Up The Air Conditioning: It’s Good For The Economy
If you are of a “certain age,” you grew up without air conditioning. As unthinkable as it is now, we made due with window screens and fans. And we survived. Honestly, it was pretty miserable sometimes. Especially if your dad happened to have a vinyl recliner that you sat on during hot, humid August days watching Brady Bunch re-runs. Peeling yourself off one of those is an experience that will scar you forever. Air conditioning is more than just a...
Corporate God-Flies Fail Miserably on 2015 Proxy Resolutions
The Manhattan Institute’s latest Proxy Monitor hit laptops this week, revealing the nature and source of the 2015 proxy resolutions. It seems the corporate “God-flies” at religious shareholder organizations such as As You Sow and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility account for 29 percent of all shareholder resolutions submitted to the nation’s top 250 publically panies. This percentage is second only to the corporate gadflies – identified by the report’s author, James R. Copland, as “individuals and their family...
Why Family Is Central To A Healthy Society
In this short video, Allan Carlson of the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society describes the importance and centrality of the family to a health society. Families that work together in some endeavor tend to be healthier, are able to care for themselves and thus e the foundation of a sound economy and society. ...
Dory Rowing in the Canyon: Where Work and Wonder Meet
One day, while riding down the Colorado River, Amber Shannon suddenly realized her vocation. “I really wanted to row little wooden boats down big rapids with big canyon walls,” she says. “That was the life dream.” Although it may sound impractical to some, tour guide John Shocklee calls being a boatman in the Grand Canyon “the most coveted job in the world.” “It’s definitely easier to get a PhD than it is to get a dory here in the Grand...
Rev. Sirico: Environmental Encyclical May Fall Prey To Politics
Speaking on The Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV on Friday, Rev. Robert Sirico addressed questions regarding the new papal encyclical, Laudato Si’, which reportedly will be released this week. mented on Pope Francis’ tendency to speak “off the cuff,” saying this may be exploited by the press or others who simply want to push their own agenda regarding the environment and climate change. Sirico also expressed trepidation regarding the pontiff’s plan to address a joint session of Congress during...
Are We Setting Up For A Cultural Implosion?
What does it meant to be happy, and is our culture getting that all wrong? Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, thinks that may be the case. A prolific author and speaker, Spitzer explores what happiness means in his latest book, Finding True Happiness: Satisfying Our Restless Hearts. First, we seek happiness in external material possessions. This can range from acquiring that sought-after gadget or enjoying a fabulous meal. There’s nothing wrong with this type of happiness, but it’s fleeting. The second...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved