We Don’t Need to Subscribe to Everything

The rise of subscription-based products and services highlights the growing trend of businesses devising devious ways to extract money from consumers and pretending it’s perfectly normal and acceptable when it hasn’t been in the past.

It used to be that the only things you would subscribe to would be products or services where you got something new or of value each month. For example: You would subscribe to a magazine and get a new magazine each month or you would pay monthly for a gym membership and use their facilities on an ongoing basis. You got something new or were able to use a service each month in return for your money.

Then things changed. At some point after the year 2000 or so, businesses that weren’t providing you anything new each month invented a way to maximize their profits: They started charging for things that were historically included in the purchase of an item or that you never had to subscribe to before. Here are some examples of things that didn’t used to require a subscription but now do thanks to companies’ insatiable thirst for profit:

• Printers that don’t work unless you pay a subscription.
• A treadmill that won’t function if you don’t shell out money each month.
• Not being able to use car seat heaters unless you pay a monthly fee.
• Phone apps that won’t function unless you pay an ongoing fee.
• Computer software that used to be bought once but now charges monthly.
• Washing machines that limit use of features unless you subscribe.
• Headphones and earbuds you have to pay for monthly to use.
• A sewing machine that won’t function unless you pay a monthly charge.

Business practices have evolved to find ways to squeeze as much cash as possible out of customers. I have nothing against paying for a product or service on an ongoing basis if it’s something I can’t just buy once or I’m receiving something of value each month, but it’s galling to pay repeatedly for things that were formerly not charged for.

The reason unnecessary and exploitative subscriptions occur and propagate is that there are no controls in place. Lawmakers don’t protect consumers, instead capitulating to the all-powerful corporations and letting them do whatever they want at the expense of consumers who often have no other choice but to pay for a subscription that used to not even exist. Until there are laws in place to limit subscription services to things that provide actual value on an ongoing basis, companies will continue to find obnoxious ways to charge for things that used to be included in the price of the product or service and that we used to pay for only once.

The point of all this is that things don’t have to be this way and weren’t for the majority of history. We could change this trend tomorrow if we had a system that valued people over corporations. Lawmakers could enact legislation that allows companies to make a reasonable profit while not extorting the consumer. The only reason nothing is being done is because those in power don’t side with the consumer, instead letting corporations do whatever they want to in the name of the free market. If nothing is done about companies taking advantage of people, all we’ll have left is our blissful memories of not having to subscribe to everything. What are your thoughts?