NetChoice.org/P2P

NetChoice.org/P2P

Why the Peer-to-Peer Economy Matters

The Next Big Thing

The secret sauce of the American economy is how we create and exploit the next big thing. From mass-production manufacturing in the last century, through astounding innovation in computing and telecommunications, to all those new services enabled by the Internet, America has led the world.

Now, it’s time for America to lead the world in helping people earn income through the Peer-to-Peer Economy – online platforms where workers find customers who need their services; where owners of cars and homes find consumers who want to rent their assets; and where people who make or find goods can sell to buyers across the country and around the world. (see page 2 on the flipside for examples of P2P Online Platforms)

The P2P Economy empowers people to work when they want, where they want, how they want. In some ways it’s a throwback to the 19th century, when most Americans worked in small businesses. Then we left small towns and farms behind and moved to growing urban centers for factory jobs with lifetime benefits. Today those factory jobs are few and far between, and that’s where P2P economic opportunities can help.

Regulation and Taxation

The P2P Economy is going to require a new mindset about how our local, state, and federal government restrict, regulate, and tax the entrepreneurial activities enabled by online platforms.

Those policy decisions will determine how this new P2P Economy will – or won’t – deliver benefits to American workers and consumers. One thing’s for sure: it won’t work to apply old regulations that serve to protect legacy trades and large companies from competition and innovation.

We need to approach all the foundations of an economy – education, taxes, and regulation, – with a new eye for a new era. (see page 3 on the flipside for ways we can promote the P2P Economy)

From the Coastland to the Heartland

Perhaps most importantly, the P2P Economy can connect two segments of our society that seem at odds in America today: the engineers and entrepreneurs in coastal states that develop the technology; and people in the Midwest and Southern states who feel like tech and economic changes are leaving them behind.

Peer-to-peer online platforms—if we make the right policy choices – can provide economic opportunities for all Americans.