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Subscription Services Enables bad business practices

 


My brother sent me this chart, and it made me think about how many products are out there which demands subscriptions. I’ve seen coffee makers and printers demand customers to pay a monthly subscription, despite the fact that the customer owns the product. If you told me ten years ago that companies would force consumers to subscribe just to use their own fridge, I’d laugh in your face due to the absurdity of it. 

Yet, here we are in 2024, living in a time where people drop $60k on a new vehicle, only to be forced to pay a subscription just so they can use the car. If it were legal to do so, companies would charge people a subscription just to use oxygen. They would charge us a subscription just to use the washroom if they could get away with it. They would charge us every month for every bodily function if laws permitted it, because they’ll do everything in their power to wring every dollar out of you. 

Corporate greed is part of the reason why we cannot replace iPhone batteries ourselves; because if we could repair our own phones it would save us hundreds of dollars. It would also make consumers less likely to replace their phones every two to three years. 

I would go into more depth, however I am tired. I figure that I may as well voice my own opinion on the matter to let others know that they’re not alone. Smarter people are able to go into more detail about how the subscription economy keeps people poor.


Until next time!

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