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Comment by jtchang | Hacker News Reader

There is going to be a head on collision between current government regulations and this rise of social sharing. Airbnb vs the entrenched hotel industry. Uber vs the taxi commissions.

I, for one, welcome it. It's time the market voiced their opinion over how much value these groups provide.

For example, take internet. Right now everyone can get cable/dsl but in many contracts it is against their terms to share it. I understand why because a lot of their #s are based around utilization. But I still feel in some way taken advantage of.

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> Airbnb vs the entrenched hotel industry really? Entrenched? Aren't all industries entrenched in that sense?

I can get the hate for taxi commissions but last I checked hotels are a pretty good service.

Not just social sharing, I am amazed how many regulations there are that protect businesses from disruption by other businesses. For example, Tesla cannot sell cars in Arizona, because it is against the law for a manufacturer to sell a car directly to a consumer:

http://bit.ly/143Zvqt

And yet, that regulation was probably created for a good reason, to protect consumers from car companies selling cars that they had no way of servicing effectively if something went wrong with the car or if there was a recall.

Maybe Tesla has found a way of profitably selling cars and servicing them without a dealer network and the law should be changed. Or, maybe Tesla just isn't big enough to have had that problem yet.

That regulation affects not just Tesla, but all car makers. Tesla is certainly innovative, but these restrictions have nothing to do with that innovation; gas-guzzling SUVs cannot be sold direct-to-consumer either.

"In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."

- Anatole France, Le Lys Rouge [The Red Lily] (1894), ch. 7

But Tesla is the only car manufacturer without dealers so they're the only one that can challenge the law without destroying their existing sales channel.

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