The Sharing Economy Is Already Familiar to Us All

The economy often seems very complicated, understood only by highly educated economists. It also seems that there are many different economic approaches worldwide. And yet we may ask ourselves: what is the economy, really?

The word economy is, in its very origin, connected with the home, the family and the community. It comes from the ancient Greek word oikonomia: oikos means home, family and the goods needed for life, while nomos means law or management. The economy, therefore, originally means the careful management of goods for the well-being of a family or community.

So let us look at how the economy works within the family or household, the smallest socio-economic community.

In families around the world, regardless of origin, religion, political system, culture or tradition, we can observe a common economic characteristic: the sharing of goods.

Family members do not compete with one another; they share goods. By this we also mean extended families and households. It is hard to imagine parents not sharing goods with their children, grandparents or sick family members. Without sharing, humanity could not have survived at all, since in the first years of life the human being is among the most helpless creatures on Earth.

Economists often teach us that competition and competitiveness are good. But let us look at the consequences within our broadest family – humanity. Hundreds of millions of people are hungry, and a large part of humanity is, in one way or another, deprived of the most basic goods. Is this really a successful economic system?

What if we took what we have known how to do in families for thousands of years and applied it to broader communities – local, national and global? This means: sharing goods.

In this way, we could live side by side, in peace and prosperity.

The sharing economy has therefore long been familiar to us, since we live it every day at home, in the family. Now let us begin to put it into practice in our planetary home as well, within our great family – humanity.