The amusing legitimacy debate going on in Turkey? I still want to believe that it is a misunderstanding caused by a translation error.

Lately I have been thinking about explaining how the Internet economy has changed our lives by use of a solid example. On the occasion of prime minister Erdoğan’s recent amusing remark themed, “there are legitimate lives and illegitimate lives,” I want to talk about how the sharing economy today has boomed, thanks to the Internet. It has been on my mind for a long time, and here I go today. Companies of the new economy, such as Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, Sidecar, and RelayRides have been growing like crazy. The Internet has changed the organization of our lives. "Property" has become a word leftover from the previous century. The meaning of ownership has changed. Laws are not able to keep up with the pace of the Internet. Recently, New York’s attorney general joined the pursuit of people who rent out a room of their homes online. His motivation was to prevent tax evasion and security violations. The relevant law will be passed soon. Having heard Erdoğan’s remarks on the legitimacy of individuals’ lives with this story in the background, I started to think that there might have been a misunderstanding due to a translation error.

I still believe that we are lost in translation.

The economy is driven by consumption. Consumers buy cars, houses, televisions, or iPads for their babies. Until recently, consumption brought a transfer of ownership. It no longer does. When I was a boy, socialist French author Jean Baby’s A Better World was considered a communist utopia. In Baby’s world, no one owned cars. If you needed a car, you just picked one up on the street, got your things done, and returned the car to where you picked it up. We have had this for bicycles if not for cars, for some time now. I am talking about civilized cities, of course, Paris, Barcelona, and Washington, D.C. The other day I learned with envy that two Turkish municipalities have initiated the same project recently, Alanya and Konya. Anyway, I digress.

With the Internet, sharing practices have spread to cover all types of instruments. In America, young professionals no longer want to buy cars since they are now able to drive a Porsche in the morning, an Austin Mini to lunch, and a Mercedes to dinner. Sounds like I am quoting from the Communist Manifesto, right? You can do all of this without even owning a car. Instead, you rent a car online owned by someone else for a certain time period. Online companies like Lyft and Sidecar offer you on-demand ridesharing or renting. For ridesharing, you have to insert your place of departure and your destination. To rent a car for yourself, you visit RelayRides online. In the past, it was difficult for two individuals leaving from and going to same location to find each other. It is not anymore. Even if you did find the ride, it would have been difficult to make a security check. Not anymore, all thanks to the Internet. At the end of the day, opportunities for consumption without ownership  have expanded. Now common men have the chance to found micro businesses. Before the crisis, there were 2.25 automobiles per household in the US. The total time an automobile was actually used was slightly longer than a month per year. The car normally would wait in the garage the rest of the time; but now it can be rented out by the hour or seat.

Are you going to visit a big city for business or as a tourist? Just visit Airbnb.com and rent a room. Not a hotel room, any room of any house. In Turkey, we have Hemenkiralik.com. This entire sector offers a billion-dollar micro-business opportunity, if you ask me. According to Airbnb, the 40 businesses that had the highest turnover in New York last year made a total of $35 million, whereas the 100 landlords who were the most active in the room renting business made $54 million. Additional income for household members; cheap accommodation for tourists. It’s a win-win situation. For an option between a cab and an expensive ride with a chauffeur, visit Uber.com, where you can find independent drivers to give you a ride in top-class private cars. You don’t have to worry that the driver will take the long way and overcharge you. Willing buyer, willing seller. But the US government is not happy. Neither are the traditional rent-a-car businesses, hotels, and cab drivers. The Internet economy is changing our lives more rapidly than we expected.

What’s next? Will they ban these Internet businesses? I don’t think so. They will revise the laws, introduce standards for room rentals, and safety criteria for car rentals and car-sharing businesses. The old world will fit into the new world. Time will make everyone abide by it. All that is left of the twentieth century will adapt itself to the twenty-first.

The amusing legitimacy debate going on in Turkey? I still want to believe that it is a misunderstanding caused by a translation error.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 08.11.2013