All those products have one thing in common. It's what we call gourmetization in my country, which is a concept I believe the people should be aware of globally. It's basically the process of making you believe that the simple, cheap, realiable and lasting stuff you already have lacks something, and then marketing an "improved", refined and more expensive version to you. This process goes hand-to-hand to what you call enshittification, often being a catalyst for it.
this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Technology
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My garage door keeps trying to sell me a subscription so it will work with my car. My garage door! Where does it end!?!!
Welcome to late stage capitalism. When planned obsolescence isn't enough and you're running out o slave labour, resort to rents.
Companies do it because customers continue buying the products, if sales dropped significantly due to the subscription then they would be forced to change.
Personally I will not buy anything that relies on the cloud or a subscription to keep running. My only subscriptions are Tidal and a couple more independent streaming services.
How do you like tidal? I've been considering it.
If Civilization II taught me one thing, it's that ongoing payments are an absolute scam... Unless you're planning to declare war anyway.