Subscriptions and Why I Would Un-Invent This

The whole concept. Throw it away. I don’t understand why anyone in the world would choose to pay for something indefinitely over complete ownership which I understand is almost nonexistent nowadays.

You could purchase a house with cash but still be subscribed to an annual tax. So, do you really own your house or are you simply renting it from the big man in a white mansion?

And what’s up with the different tiers of online subscriptions where the lower and cheaper tier still have 6 ads every 5 minutes of a 20 minute episode?

Tithings, property tax, membership dues, union dues, rent, car registrations, business license renewals, sales tax, utilities, healthcare, tuition, or simply existing, omg I can go on.

Tuition inflation: Costs rise not because education got better, but because administrative overhead and institutional self‑preservation ballooned.

Government fees and taxes: Instead of being optimized for public good, they often feel like they’re optimized to maintain bureaucratic machinery.

Housing-related obligations: Property taxes, HOA dues, and similar fees sometimes prioritize the interests of boards or local power structures over community benefit.

Subscription-based services: Many digital or lifestyle subscriptions are designed to lock people in, not to continually improve value.

I’m not against contributing to shared systems like taxes, tuition, dues, whatever. The issue is that many of these systems are built to sustain themselves rather than serve the people funding them. When the structure benefits a few administrators, executives, or gatekeepers instead of the community, the whole model becomes extractive instead of supportive.

Living on Dog House has made this flaw even louder for me. Out here, nothing auto‑renews. Nothing bills you “just because.” If I want power, I make it. If I want water, I collect it. If something breaks, I fix it or I live without it. There’s no monthly fee for the wind, no annual renewal for the sunrise, no premium tier for a quiet anchorage.

Boat life forces you to see how much of the world is built on systems that take more than they give. And it makes the things that aren’t subscriptions like wind, tide, and sunlight, feel priceless.

If I could un‑invent anything, it would be the subscription mindset. Not the payments themselves, but the idea that everything must be paid for forever, even when the value stops flowing back.

Give me ownership. Give me responsibility. Give me the freedom to maintain my own little floating home without a monthly invoice from someone who’s never set foot on it.

Maybe that’s why Dog House feels like the most honest place I’ve ever lived. Out here, nothing is extracted. Everything is earned. And nothing auto‑renews unless I choose it.