Economic sciences

UDC 330.88

Horbenko Tetiana

Student of the

Lviv Polytechnic National University

Scientific Supervisor:

Kulyniak Ihor

PhD

Lviv Polytechnic National University

ECONOMIC CRISES AND DEVIANT BEHAVIOR IN SOCIETY: IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHARING ECONOMY

Summary. The article shows the author’s vision on the problem of development of sharing economy. According to the author, the development of economic crises and, as a result, the increase in the number of individuals with mental illness and lawlessness is one of the barriers to open-mindedness of consumers to new information-communication opportunities, which inhibits the development of collaborative capitalist relations, including sharing economy. The author also emphasizes the delayed effect of crisis situations, which can be expected in the development of Ukraine’s economy in 30-40 years.

Key words: sharing economy, deviant behavior, economic crisis.

Sharing economy is an economic model defined as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based activity of acquiring, providing, or sharing access to goods and services that is often facilitated by a community-based on-line platform. Currently, more than 86 million people use the services of companies such as Uber, Airbnb, BlaBlaCar. America, South Korea and Israel have developed this model of the best in the world.

EBAY introduced the principles of sharing economy in 1995, launching the concept of collaborative mutual benefit. Using the experiments of Rachel Botsman in the book “What’s mine is yours: the rise of collaborative consumption” [1], we can identify the following factors influencing the formation of the sharing economy:

• development of information and communications technology, cheapness of the internet;
• high demand of customized services;
• consumer choice of local companies with a “human face”;
• open-mindedness of users to new communication opportunities.

While the first three factors were developing straightforwardly, the open-mindedness of users to new communication opportunities remained impossible for a long time due to the huge number of criminals and offenses between 1970 and 1990 around the world: in the United States at that time there were more than 200 maniacs who hampered humanity from new step to economical progress.

Neuropsychologist Thomas Elbert identified the main reasons for the increase in the number of mentally ill people in society:

• psychological childhood trauma;
• family breakdown;
• unemployment, poverty, inability to ensure normal conditions for living.

Therefore, the main reasons for the increase in mass killings in 1970-1995 were the following key processes:

• difficult economic situation during the Great Depression (1929-1933);
• social, economic and political crisis during the Second World War (1939-1945).

Adult men and women at the age of 25-40 years, whose childhood was spent in incomplete impoverished families, drove away the accumulated anger and despair for the horrors, intimidating society and stopping its development not only socially, but also economically. Thus, it can be seen that the deviant behavior was revealed due to the crisis situation, which led to economic decline with a delayed effect (approximately 30-40 years).

Paradoxically, a certain correlation can be seen between the number of serial killings and the level of development of the sharing-economy. According to some researchers, one of the key roles in the accelerated phase of development of the sharing economy in the world was played by a sharp decrease in the number of criminal offenses in society.

“There was a cultural moment during the ’70s and ’80s where the dominant boogieman was the serial killer. This figure crystallized our worst fears, and walked among us,” says Harold Schecter, a professor at Queens College and a true-crime writer. “There is definitely an intriguing connection between the decline of serial killers and the rise of this sharing culture,” says Schecter, “These startups reflect how much our anxieties have eased.”

The following statistics demonstrate the correlation between the level of development of the sharing-economy and the number of serial killings.

Among the European countries for which the share of the use of the collaborative economy model is the largest as of 2018, the following should be distinguished [2]:

1. Luxembourg – 44% (no cases of serial killings were recorded).
2. Malta – 26% (one case of serial killings was recorded).

The following countries are among the European countries for which the share of using the collaborative economy model is the lowest [3]:

1. The Czech Republic and Slovakia – 5 and 8% respectively (11 serial killers were recorded during the existence of Czechoslovakia and independent Czech Republic and Slovakia).
2. Latvia – 7% (2 serial killers were recorded).
3. Belgium – 8% (12 serial killers were recorded).

Anticipating a reduction in crime and the effects of crises in the late twentieth century, entrepreneurs began to invest their capital in the development of a sharing economy implementing small security methods, based on the theory of broken windows: it was possible to avoid the growth of more serious crimes by reducing the growth of such indiscernible violations like frauds and petty thefts. This was the right decision: in 2017, a survey of Europeans on the reasons for not using Airbnb showed the result in only 17% of respondents who doubt the safety of this service [4].

Canadian investigative historian Peter Vronsky [5] predicts a new wave of serial killings in the United States in 2035 because of the economic crisis of 2008 and 2020. To prove this claim, he cites what he calls the “golden age” of serial killers between 1970 and 1999, which revealed the horrific crimes of Ted Bundy, David Richard Berkowitz and others, as he predicts the country is preparing for such an explosion of such behavior in less than 20 years.

The Ukrainian collaborative economy has come a long way:

1. Until 1991, there was no private property in Ukraine as part of the USSR.
2. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine was clutched by a crisis that lasted until 1994.
3. In 1998, the Asian crisis slowed the economical process of Ukraine.

In our opinion, these factors inhibited implementation of model principles of sharing-economy, although this model gained a real propulsion only in 2016, when Uber, Uklon and other companies launched their campaigns. For example, over the past two years, the activity of BlaBlaCar users has increased by 150% due to the strengthening of security measures of this service [6].

Comparing the statistics of unemployment in Ukraine before the crisis of 2008 (6.9%) and after it (9.6%), we can see that the figure increased by 2.7%. Also before the crisis of 2008, 6651 people were recorded who committed crimes, and in 2009 – 7268 people [7]. After 2008, Ukraine experienced crises in 2014 and 2020. Analyzing this statistics, it can be seen that these post-crisis periods may have not only economic consequences in Ukraine in 15-20 years, but also aggravate social indicators, and, as a result, the growth of mentally ill individuals in society, stopping the development of a sharing-economy.

Eventually, it can be concluded that the development of a sharing-economy directly depends on the growing trend of the number of individuals with psychological illnesses that provoke deviant behavior that inhibits society on the way to the development of collaborative capitalist relations.

References

1. Botsman Rachel, Rogers Roo (2015). What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. HarperCollins Publishers.
2. Malta Has The Second-Highest Participation Rate In The Sharing Economy In The EU. URL: https://www.maltachamber.org.mt/en/malta-has-the-second-highest-participation-rate-in-the-sharing-economy-in-the-eu.
3. Timbro Sharing Economy Index. URL: http://www.epicenternetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Timbro-Sharing-Economy-Index-2018.pdf.
4. Some people still don’t use Airbnb for these 11 reasons, report says. URL: https://www.fastcompany.com/40529855/some-people-still-dont-use-airbnb-for-these-11-reasons-report-says.
5. Author predicts a new wave of serial killers are coming to terrorize the U.S. thanks to war and the economic crisis. URL: https://www.google.com.ua/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6092553/amp/Author-forecasts-wave-serial-killers-2035-thanks-war-economic-crisis-2008.html.
6. BlaBlaCar Carpooling Service Names Ukraine Among Top Three Countries in Terms of Service Development Pace. URL: https://open4business.com.ua/blablacar-carpooling-service-names-ukraine-among-top-three-countries-in-terms-of-service-development-pace.
7. Official site of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. URL: http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua.