Venture capitalists are taking note of a couple of things that we can’t live without, and it will be shifting our lives in broad movements sooner rather than later. Over the past couple of years, companies have been shifting to subscription-based services to ensure that they can continue to milk consumers over time, rather than offering one-off sales. Let’s take a quick look at the new future, with a subscription-based life.
I’m not entirely sure where we can start looking for the proverbial ‘beginning’ of subscriptions becoming more rampant – it was a gradual metamorphosis into paying over time rather than all at once. HP Printers are notoriously cheap because they will only use HP ink, which is where Hewlett Packard makes its money back.
Keurig had a novel (if waste-laden) idea for a new coffee maker, and they quickly iterated from the original design to ensure that only Keurig-branded cups would work with them. These are much like subscriptions, where you need to consistently pay a singular company to continue the absolutely charitable idea of using a damn product you’ve already purchased.
More for Less
A company that makes motorcycle airbags (inflatable life-vests that fill in the event of an impact) will only deploy if the user is up to date on their subscription. If you fail to pay on time, you get the pleasure of skipping across the concrete, bemoaning your lack of subscription-based oversight in the last few moments of your life.
The new mantra of many companies appears to be ‘pay early, and pay often,’ a bleak outlook for consumerism that companies are far too quick to celebrate on behalf of the shareholders 😠. This paradigm, this new pattern of consumerism, is going to permeate the future of commercialism. Welcome to the subscription-based life.
An Interesting Theory
An interesting note is that venture capitalists are currently buying up HVAC companies1. A poignant nod towards the current climate of the world (which is increasing at an absurd rate) has many presuming that subscription-based air-conditioning is going to be coming sooner rather than later, and ownership of all companies within a region ensures that these companies can increase the monthly-subscription for the AC and turn the proverbial screws.
It’s not like the world is going to start cooling off while corporations are consistently manufacturing more.
So, this leads us to the question of where the line will be drawn for a subscription-based life. Insurance for those living within the United States ostensibly already offers a subscription for the usage of medical science, which notably doesn’t even pay all costs associated when dealing with the scum-fucked world of medicine.
If scientists are correct about the world running out of water2 and breathable air, we can readily presume that we will soon be paying subscriptions to breathe. The era of ownership is rapidly drawing to a close – the commercialism of renting is upon us all.
Sources
- Craig, T. (2020, February 17). Private Equity Firms Investing in HVAC Contractor Consolidation. ACHR News RSS. https://www.achrnews.com/articles/142610-private-equity-firms-investing-in-hvac-contractor-consolidation.
- Brown, T. C., Mahat, V., & Ramirez, J. A. (2019). Adaptation to Future Water Shortages in the United States Caused by Population Growth and Climate Change. Earth’s Future, 7(3), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018ef001091
Image Credit – /u/ivanienko via Reddit | User Profile
