Every year, Mary “Queen of the Net” Meeker releases her must-read “State of the Internet” report, gleaning insight from predominant internet trends, with almost prescient accuracy.
In this year’s presentation, one of the major themes she identifies is the rise of the “sharing economy” or as Mary calls it, a shift to an “Asset-Light Generation.”
A simple translation of this term is: Americans buying less stuff. It is a trend that should not only inspirit sustainability advocates, but Americans all-around. Asset-heavy consumption has led our country to experience a rise in obesity, a rise in pollution, and a rise in debt, with a net impact of a decrease in quality of life.
So cheers to the rise of the “Asset-Light Generation” — there’s hope for us yet.
I forget where/when I came across this way of articulating the same macrotrend, but I quite like it: “As on-demand ‘access’ to a good becomes sufficiently reliable, frictionless, and ubiquitous, the very notion of ‘ownership’ becomes superfluous.”