Until we start highlighting the personal costs of left-wing policies, those policies will continue to find traction with voters. That’s why the Right should stand up and make the case that liberals want to stop you from taking cheap vacations.
That’s how conservatives should describe left-wing efforts to destroy the segment of the gig economy represented by Airbnb, Vrbo, and their various competitors that allow homeowners to let rooms, apartments, or houses to vacationing guests. The populist drive to kill off or hinder these services is not at all unrelated to the result of a new YouGov poll suggesting that just shy of 50% of millennials have favorable opinions of socialism.
A great way for conservatives to rebut that sympathy is to focus on the gig economy. Millennials love ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, and residence-sharing services such as Airbnb. These opportunities allow us to travel with greater ease, affordability, and choice. Empowering individuals to provide their human and physical capital on the free market, they show capitalism at its best.
Most left-wing politicians are too clever to openly admit a desire to destroy the gig economy or co-opt it on behalf of the union special interests that control their political fate. Instead, liberal officeholders like Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren aim to kill the gig economy with a thousand cuts. Incidentally, it’s the same strategy Warren applies in destroying our innovative technology sector.
Fortunately, there are those on the Left who aren’t as clever as the politicians themselves. Conservatives would do well to shine a light on their strategy.
Take the press release issued on Wednesday by “Airbnb Watch,” a self-styled “coalition of concerned neighbors.” Airbnb Watch actually appears to be funded by hotel and union lobbyists. Although veiled by quotes from seemingly genuine city leaders, the press release makes clear what it wants: Put pressure on Congress to pass the Plan Act, which would better enable hoteliers and government to sue Airbnb and its accommodation providers.
The mechanism here is especially important because it strikes at a free-speech issue central to debates over online censorship by Big Tech companies. The secret plan to cripple AirbnB revolves around creating new exceptions to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. That provision, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes,
This is usually discussed in the context of social media, where the traffic is all in ideas and memes. But you can just imagine how changes to this section could affect a service whose sole purpose is to connect users who request or supply rides or places to stay.
Airbnb Watch claims that the bill is about protecting communities. Fortunately, however, the sponsor of this measure in Congress doesn’t appear to have gotten the memo. Rep. Ed Case’s announcement of the bill offers supporting quotes from numerous hotel associations. The whole point is to protect an industry — and sadly, there are some conservative lobbyists running around town right now carrying their water as well — and its dying union.
This campaign has reached across the whole world. Right now, in Jersey City, the hotel lobby is trying to trick voters into banning themselves from using their properties as they see fit. This ties nicely to Newsom’s new law, regulating Uber and Lyft out of California. These bills attacking the gig economy are all about protecting hotel and taxi special interests over the right of individuals to use their property and money in their own best interests. It is an example of socialism’s immoral pursuit of command economy regulation at the expense of the rights of others.
Yes, there are those on the Republican side who also favor a planned economy. Senator Josh Hawley and Congressman Matt Gaetz have a great deal in common with Warren and company here. But at the core, the anti-gig economy movement is one being driven from the political Left. Free-market conservatives should stand up and make our own arguments clear so that millennials understand socialism is not just some pie-in-the-sky utopian idea — socialism will put people out of work and inconvenience them almost immediately.
