OPINION — Nearly a decade ago, the phrase “you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” entered the public conversation via a World Economic Forum essay by Ida Auken (“Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better”).
Auken lauded “shared services” as an increasingly normal way of life. Why “own” a car, a refrigerator, or even your own clothes, when you could just pay a monthly subscription fee and let others worry about tire wear, blown compressors, jeans going out of fashion, etc.?
We’re already well into the era of “subscription” versus “ownership,” starting with digital media. Movie, TV shows and books have largely moved off of VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, and paper and into the cloud. Even if you “buy” them, even if you download them, they tend to be bound to particular devices and/or particular subscriptions, and to terms of service with fine print that lets them be taken away at will.
