This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, August 7th, 2014.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Peer-to-peer apps like Uber, Lift, Task Rabbit, and AirB&B are causing headaches for the modern regulatory state, but the real

value of these bits of software might be helping people in developing countries get on with

their lives whether or not their governments agree to it.

Matthew Feeney is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

We spoke today.

Well, what I think a lot of people don't consider is something that

the

it was highlighted in Forbes, where he pointed out that while it might be the case

that people in the Western world like you and me

enjoy Uber and Live for its convenience that the sharing

economy and the technologies that allow it to exist could have great benefits in the developing

world.

People using technology to communicate with one another in in regimes that are unfriendly to or even hostile to property rights.

Well, the developing world will come as no surprise to listeners that a lot of developing

countries are highly corrupt and are not very receptive to economic freedom and there are a lot of

regulatory barriers for entrepreneurs there.

Now I think a good example of this to highlight the issue is taxis in the pre- Internet age.

Now before the rise of the internet which allowed for companies like Uber and Lyft

to exist, taxi companies could make the argument that, well, without our regulations, you're just getting in a car with a strange person and at least

we do background checks and at least we do all other sorts of things.

...