July 20, 2014
It would be nice if someone could force Thomas Friedman to learn a little bit about the topics of his columns. Today he ran another ad for Airbnb, touting its hyperconnectiveness. While Friedman is ecstatic over the company’s hyperconnectiveness, he fails to answer the most basic questions.
Can Airbnb guarantee that its rooms are safe? If not, can we sue and imprison its executives if people who use the service die in fires? What about the nuisance of living next to a hotel room when you paid to buy a condo or rent an apartment? Can neighbors of popular guest rooms sue Airbnb for the diminution of the value of their homes?
These questions are probably too complex for someone like Thomas Friedman, but perhaps the NYT could hire someone to seriously deal with the issues that Thomas Friedman raises.
Note: An earlier version raised questions about local and state taxes, which Airbnb reports it tries to collect.
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