Trick-or-Treating and the Sharing Economy

A lot of you know how passionate Ben and I are about expanding the influence of the sharing economy. I recently wrote about how amazing Portland is in respect to the number of different ways one can participate in resource sharing.

This past week we all participated in one of the most famous nation-wide community sharing events: trick-or-treating.

Some of us are pretty serious about sharing.

Why do we go from house to house asking for candy when it would be easier and faster to simply go buy candy from the store for ourselves? Why do we brave the Smarties houses, the cold weather, and the shear inconvenience of of the holiday when we could just stay in our warm house eating Reeses or Snickers all night long? We could even dress in costumes while we do it! Why do we spend our hard-earned money on candy for strangers who come knocking on our door?

I would argue that it's for the sake of community. It makes us feel good to give of what we have to others. It's fun to ask for something in return. It's healthy to get to know our neighbors, to have our kids socialize, and to be active in the community. It just feels good to walk around the neighborhood with hundreds of our neighbors, all with the same purpose and goal.

So why can't we do this more often on a larger scale? For example, why does everybody on the block need their own lawn mower? We use our lawn mower for a total of 20 minutes once every week for a few months out of the year. Every Saturday we and all of our neighbors pull our individual lawn mowers out, use them for 15-20 minutes, and then store them away for another week (or for months at a time during the winter). They are expensive, they take up a ton of precious space, and there is frankly no reason why we each need to own one of our own. It would make much more sense for us and our neighbors to pool our resources together to buy one mower and take turns using it every Saturday. Not only is it cheaper that way, but you also reap the benefits of getting to know your neighbors and having a close-knit community. There are thousands of other examples of ways we could all do this better.

We can share tools, clothes, movies, kitchen supplies, toys, cars, bikes, even furniture we don't use everyday. However, it needs to be organized and it needs to be fair. Nobody wants to be taken advantage of. Nobody wants their stuff lost or broken. But we all have way too much stuff and we would all benefit from sharing with our neighbors more than once per year.

Now, I'm not arguing for communal living or giving up possessions by force. It should be voluntary and all parties involved should feel comfortable with the arrangement. I own a couple of things that I sure as heck will not loan out, but I also own a lot of stuff stored away in our crawl space that could benefit somebody else.

Sharing is not just about giving stuff away. It's about receiving something in return for sharing something else. Sometimes that is money (a small usage fee or wear-and-tear fee). Sometimes that is other goods or services that are equivalent in value (trading baby clothes for clothes that would fit my big kids, for example). Sometimes that is simply the warm fuzzies that come when you give of yourself and build relationships in the community in which you live. Whatever it is, you can't beat it.

So let's all use Halloween and the tradition of trick-or-treating as an example of how to live for the rest of the year. Let's be active in our communities and pool our resources together to create something more amazing and awesome than any of us can create on our own. Let's share.