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    10" Rubber BilboBrendan O'Connor
    11/09/15 7:33am

    I have rented out my home—not coastal city apartment but single-family suburban home, thanks-on AirBnb many times. It’s become useful stream of extra income for my family. I used part of the money to open a 529 account for my son. Should I not have done that? If he needs to take on college loans can I rely on Gawker Media to hire him at a handsome salary after graduation? Bear in mind my family doesn’t have either the resources or inclination to work for free for a while like that nice ‘Intern from Heaven’ girl you wrote about. I guess I should just apologize. “I’m sorry for not choosing to be poorer so that hotel owners can make more money.”

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      helgaperez10" Rubber Bilbo
      11/09/15 8:14am

      I haven’t seen a lot of people bashing those who use AirBnB to make some cash or to find a place to stay. The outrage mostly seems to be directed at AirBnB itself for not properly warning its users about the risks of its service, and not taking responsibility when things go wrong.

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      Crash Comet10" Rubber Bilbo
      11/09/15 8:27am

      You’d be better off buying him a lotto ticket every year.

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    asdfasdfasdfasdffBrendan O'Connor
    11/08/15 11:54pm

    So a grown man got on a rope swing at a stranger’s house with no knowledge of its capacity, the tree breaks and lands on him in a freak accident, and it’s airbnbs fault?

    How about realizing that the more people that use something, the higher chance crazy shit is going to happen?

    Pay for a hotel if you want the liability and amenities of a hotel.

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      stillburnswhenipostasdfasdfasdfasdff
      11/09/15 12:00am

      He didn’t say it was Airbnb’s fault. Instead of being a dick, read the article.

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      Apt-Zeroasdfasdfasdfasdff
      11/09/15 12:01am

      And for fucks sake, don’t stay at my parents’ house. They have raccoons and poison ivy.

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    chickaboomBrendan O'Connor
    11/08/15 11:44pm

    “The rope swing looked inviting....”

    oH MY GOD!

    I shouldn't be laughing. I know and I apologize.

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      HairyPalmer1chickaboom
      11/08/15 11:57pm

      “The trampoline next to the spacious wood burning outdoor fire pit looked inviting ...”

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      gramercypolicechickaboom
      11/09/15 12:10am

      Why, it’s so funny one might even call it “kooky”.

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    asmallcatBrendan O'Connor
    11/09/15 12:19am

    The solution to all of this is as simple as it is impossible because of how much money impacts our political system - A law needs to be passed stating that if you are a storefront that connects people in this “sharing economy,” and you profit off each of those transactions, you must act as an “insurer” just like any traditional business does. Let’s actually see if this sharing economy trend really is adding value to the economy and making life better for everyone, or if it’s just pushing externalities on to less visible groups so everyone thinks this shit is super profitable when really it’s just like a new factory that cuts costs by dumping all its waste into the ocean.

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      stuckonrewindBrendan O'Connor
      11/09/15 1:38am

      “It seems like Airbnb would like to wish away the complexities of what community really means: shared interests that hold people together, a set of agreed-upon rules to keep people in check, and transparency.”

      Seems this applies not just to Airbnb. There appears to be this Instagram-filtered nostalgia for home and place and constant beauty and connectivity, a thing the Internet and this brave new world of communication was to give us, but really we are falsifying everything. Transparency and true community have been lost, or at least temporarily misplaced, and this pseudo-hippy let’s all live in one another's houses and be as one will only last so long. On one end we have this. On the other we have reawakening race and gender wars. A bizarre time.

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        Randy HallBrendan O'Connor
        11/08/15 11:43pm

        Thanks for posting this as it may have saved my life for the time being. This is going to sound naive, but I’ve never considered anything like this could happen to anyone using that site. I’ll never consider using that service, and I’m going to pass this article onto my loved ones.

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          GeorgeGeoffersonLivesRandy Hall
          11/09/15 12:28am

          lol

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        GurvinderBrendan O'Connor
        11/09/15 12:02am

        I suppose the home and car, the final frontiers of some sort of commons is slowly fading. Sad to hear about the dad dying though. Must be so weird to come home to a house where someone you don’t know from Adam just died in. Just shuddering thinking about it.

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