Commercial Economy:
The commercial economy is how we understand an “economy” in general. “…an economy in which money or “price” is a central term of the ordinary, or normal, exchange.” (118) Products and services within a commercial economy have tangible economic values. We pay for a CD/Movie at a store; we buy food from a restaurant; we pay handymen to fix our furnace. There are infinite amounts of examples here and I think it is pretty easy to understand.
Sharing Economy:
Lessig defines a sharing economy “…as an economy, where access to culture is regulated not by price, but by a complex set of social relations.” (145) It’s a bit more complicated and can be a confusing system to understand, especially when people from different cultures are interacting with each other. The basic idea is that within a community you understand when you should take and give to that community. The sharing community is built around exchange, but this exchange is built on balance and favors, not on set prices and money. If you help people in the community and don’t get anything in return from a certain person, then that person will probably not last within the community.
Lessig wants us to understand that no society could survive with just one or the other. Both a commercial and sharing economy go hand in hand to making this world go around. He also states that the Internet has revolutionized business and economies as well. His examples range from Netflix to Wikipedia.
