The Mesh - Lisa Gansky [27]
People are also more open to sharing. After all, sharing is not a brand-new idea. In the past, farmers were used to sharing things. There was an ethic of helping one another. Homes were often built together in the Amish style. More recently, many share platforms have thrived. As noted earlier, Conrad Hilton built a chain of international hotels that transformed the industry. Air travel took off. Energy cooperatives brought power to rural areas.
The big shift toward ownership arrived in the twentieth century, especially the second half. Government policy encouraged this trend by subsidizing gas and inexpensive home loans. The middle class drove to the suburbs and bought homes. Although pushed by public and corporate policy, people’s desire for autonomy and convenience powered the trend. That desire sustained the large-scale movement toward ownership for half a century. Autonomy was linked to status. Relying on your neighbors was out.
Today, perceptions are shifting again. The culture and psychology of ownership are in a transition—which isn’t surprising. Cultural anthropologists have shown the transience of certain status indicators. Take the perception of beauty. Heavy people with porcelain white skin used to be considered beautiful. These features signaled wealth and time to devote to leisure. Now, beauty is connected to being svelte and tan, because that too tracks to leisure time. The constant is the relationship between beauty and leisure time. What’s in today can be out tomorrow.
Currently, the fashion for what confers “the good life” is trending deeply toward the Mesh. From the 1950s through the ’70s large cars were the fashion. When the gas crisis hit, more efficiency was in vogue until the SUV craze picked up steam. But huge cars and homes are again falling out of fashion. They are perceived as inefficient, wasteful, harmful, out of date, and unnecessary. It was a sign of the times when GM shut down the Hummer brand, due to bankruptcy. The fact is that if you’re sitting right now with a whole lot of large single-family homes with four-car garages filled with SUVs, I’m going short on your stock.
In fact, recent studies, including one from the U.S. Department of Transportation, reveal early signs that the attitudes of youth toward car ownership and driving are shifting dramatically. The percentage of young people in the United States seeking a driver’s license upon turning seventeen has been in rapid decline since 1998, and fell a third in the three decades between 1978 and 2008. Then, having a license was synonymous with adulthood and independence. Today, more young people are opting for car sharing, bike sharing, ride sharing, and mass transit for everyday personal transportation. Sustainable living is also trending up. Status formerly associated with autonomy and excess is now better achieved through civic behavior and community participation. When Brad Pitt helps build state-of-the-art green homes in the ravaged areas of New Orleans and Leonardo DiCaprio stumps for Global Green, they are reflecting the zeitgeist. A Zogby survey concluded that the virtues of simple living especially appeal to the 100-million-strong Millennial Generation, also called Gen Y. Zogby reports that this generation, ranging from those still in grade school to people in their twenties, is more socially conscious, environmentally aware, connected, and demanding as customers than earlier generations. Trendwatching.com reports they are accelerating a cultural shift toward sharing. Adolescent psychologist Michael Bradley told USA Today that young people want to avoid “being enslaved to the material goals they perceived their parents being caught up in.”
There’s also a growing realization that the true cost of something