San Jose may start taxing people who rent their pads through Airbnb and other home-sharing services.

San Jose may join a host of other cities trying to cash in on subletting service Airbnb, a website that helps people rent out vans, whole homes, just the spare bedroom or anything in-between for extra income.

I watched a piece on CNN the other day that really tied the room together, in terms of the battle over America’s energy future. Recently in this space, I’ve ranted about rentseekers—established industries backed by favorable regulations that stifle innovation and thrive by maintaining the status quo. This story rides a thru-line from social innovators, like Uber and Airbnb, to the heart of the solar energy revolution, and it exposes a dilemma at the core of our economy: The free market doesn’t really exist.