“Platforms like Uber are boosting the incomes of millions of American families,” Plouffe said. “They’re helping people who are struggling to pay the bills, earn a little extra spending money, or transitioning between jobs.” Overall, he said, Uber and similar plaforms address “the challenges of wage stagnation and underemployment.” That message is strikingly similar to Airbnb’s self-portrait. “Homesharing provides an economic lifeline to the middle class in a period where economic inequality is one of the defining issues of our time,” Lehane said on Wednesday.