[Cause]

Im not saying anything you do not know. Subscriptions are skyrocketing.

I have quite a few subscriptions to my name.

Some are fair: I think its fair for Netflix to charge an ongoing fee for me to access the streaming platform. The revenue is necessary to pay for the ongoing maintenance of the servers, the production costs of first party content and the licensing fees for 3rd party content. Netflix charges me a monthly fee but has oingoing monthly expenses they need to account for and of course I don't begrudge them a little profit. That's business. Magazine subscriptions are fair. News bureaus charging for content is fair.

Some are ridiculous: A) The Amex platinum card now includes a $200 dollar credit for an Oura ring. This made me contemplate getting one. An oura smart ring costs $350 dollars but requires an ongoing monthly $6 subscription to unlock anything more than the most basic functionality. Not even heart rate data is accesible without the subscription. The company is charging you hundreds of dollars for hardware, with all the sensonrs necessary to measure Heart rate, sleep, oxygen etc but purposefully locks access behind a subscription. We know its uneccesary because apple and their competitors do not need a subscription or AI to show you your heart rate. If you want me to pay for the subscription for advice on how to improve my sleep or excercise in a healthy heart zone thats fine, but this is locking core functionality behind a paywall. Car companies are experimenting with locking heated seats behind a subscription? Is the hardware in the car, Yes. Am I providing the energy for the heat, Yes? Than what reason other than greed is there for this paywall?

Then there are the grey areas: What about freemium games. At worse these games are skinner boxes hidden through cute and fun UI to look like games. 90% of people do not get sucked in but the ones who do are paying tens to hundreds of dollars to play substandard games. Games that are free cost more than premium triple AAA titles in the longterm. Its not a subscription in the traditional sense but gameplay is locked away behind purposefully irrating adds to milk you for money. The game mechanics are desgined to frustrate you if you dont smoothe the road with paid for extra XP, weapons, unlocks, perks etc.

Is legislation falling behind the times by failing to protect consumers against these practices? Is this jut the free market at work?

I guess I could even stretch 'subscriptions' to include things like the new Nintendo Switch 2. The hardware costs $450 but you dont own it in the traditional sesnse. Nintendo is selling you a licence to use the hardware in perpuity in accordance with their rules. They calim the right to deactivate the licence and brick your switch forever if they catch you cheating in online play, modding the console etc. I understand they want to prevent people jailbreakign the switch and allowing piracy of switch games but if in 2030 I want to modify my switch to become th worlds best PSP emulator that should be my legal right. I paid for the physical hardware. It mine to do with as I like. I feel this is destined for a lawsuit.

This post has been edited by Cause: Yesterday, 07:12 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

A lot of influential investors love subscriptions because they're a relatively steady and predictable source of revenue, so there's pressure to add subscriptions anywhere imaginable.

And like those "freeware" games subscriptions exploit the psychology of US consumers by requiring small monthly payments that add up to large amounts over time and as more and more "negligible" or "inexpensive" seeming monthly subscriptions pile on. US consumers seem particularly vulnerable to this because they tend to spend most of their paychecks instead of saving or investing---even going into debt to buy more unnecessary stuff, much of it cheap junk that seems to have "negligible" cost. Relative to other countries like China, most consumers seem short-sighted and wasteful. But then again the US economy has come to largely depend on that behavior. So perhaps they're being... patriotic? To our Idiot Go*-King, Maman, who has finally arrived in quasi-human form as Donald Trump?

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Yesterday, 07:42 PM