Absolutely agree with all of this David! And nothing to add.
Alan B.

As much as I abhor the growth of the digital economy, I find most of the author's arguments compellingly correct.

Below are the exceptions where I disagree:

While government should not assist the traditional forms of industry, it should not assist the digital forms either, but currently it does.

So long as there is GST, it is unfair to collect it from Australian sources but not from overseas mailed items.

Turning a home into a hotel should indeed be none of the business of the established hotel/motel industry - but it could still be the business of neighbours who bought their homes on the assumption that they are in a peaceful and quiet residential street.

I don't get it.

These sharing economies are still businesses. Businesses pay tax. Why shouldn't the customers of sharing economy businesses pay GST (or in other countries, VAT), just like any other business, because they are purchasing a service?

These sharing economy businesses should also be subject to regulation, like any other business. The fact that they are being innovative and 'creatively destructive' does not exempt them from paying their dues.

Like the next person, I hate over-regulation and over-taxation, but the rule of the land says that, if you run a business, you pay your taxes and you abide by the regulations governing your area of business.

Dear Killarney,

As much as it would be in my personal interest to smash those "innovative", digital-dependent operations to pieces, I have no right to do so.

The problem with GST is not the extra money it costs customers: the problem is that it turns the seller/provider into a tax-collector, working for free on a government-job. The complexity for the ordinary small provider in understanding the issues, keeping the records and doing all the forms and calculations, is enormous, to the extent that most people either give up business or hire an accountant for about $3,000 p.a. to handle the tax complexities. Australian law has recognised this and therefore exempts small businesses with a turn-over under $75,000 from registering for GST. Without registering for GST, no GST is directly collected, but also the GST that was paid on the provider's expenses is not refunded.

Regarding regulations: since a business is not a sentient being, there is nothing abhorrent about the wish to shape it, twist it, torture it, etc. - but how is it possible to regulate businesses without also regulating the lives of the people involved, both the provider and the customer? If a business is structured as a company, then I say, go for its throat and regulate it to death, but you cannot do the same to living individuals, even if you don't like them.

The author gave the example of being able to ride as a passenger in a car that doesn't have bureaucratic notices stuck all over the windscreen. If one person is allergic to such notices and another person is willing and able to provide them with such a service, then who are you to interfere and deny them this experience?

My opposition is not to a sharing economy but to the many taxes and imposts the various govt's put on us either as sole traders or as a company. We are by far amongst the most expensive country in the world. Because we have a system of govt that has insulated itself from scrutiny and criticism it is near impossible to expose their corrupt and self serving agenda. Looking back now, the economy IS in decline. More people have been laid off than ever before. More people are doing it 'tough'. All levels of govt, instead of reducing charges, in keeping with the state of the economy, they have steadily increased them, acting as though nothings wrong. Local, State, and Federal govts have increased charges across the board. Not to mention the fact they had to lift the profits of the electricity providers so they could sell them to their mates. In case you all forgot, when they tried to sell the energy providers they were told quite clearly they were not interested as it was not viable, build up the bottom line and we'll consider it. What a scam. This is one of the problem areas not so much the sharing economy.

Dear ALTRAV,

Let us look at the bright side: at least we are not in Venezuela!

Economic sharing in principle is great.
The problem is in this particular form of sharing-economy that increases our dependence on digital technology.
I agree with the author that we have no right to forbid or even regulate it, but this will prove to be our ruin: as this type of technology cannot be produced and sustained by Australia on its own. Once the rest of the world comes down, we will be on our knees too.