You’ll Own Nothing - And You’ll Hate It

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]The average person thinks they spend about 90 quid a month on subscriptions, but the real number is more like 175.

[00:00:07]That's a gap of two and a half times where you literally don't know how much you're paying. And in this video, we're going to break down everything. One, why your granddad could buy a house on one salary and you can't even save for a deposit across 10 years. Two, why buying a printer outright is cheaper than paying for it on subscription and why the company would rather you didn't know that. Three, why BMW charges you a monthly fee to heat seats that are already physically installed in your car. Four, why an ex-Greek finance minister says, "I hated capitalism."

[00:00:39]Five, why are three blokes with air beds accidentally built a company worth more than Hilton and what they that says to us about ownership. And why that is going to surprise you, life isn't actually getting more expensive, you're just getting paid less for producing more. Now, look, this isn't me having a rant about modern life, it's actually the economics behind why you own nothing and what you can do to take back control. And by the end of this video, you'll know exactly where your money's going, why the system's built this way, and how to beat it. So, let's get into it. In 2016, a Danish politician called Ida Auken wrote an essay for the World Economic Forum. It's like we've forgotten what politics is about, but it's about people. There is no such thing as the right thing. What politics is really about, it's the people, stupid.

[00:01:27]>> And one line became a meme for the next decade. Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better. Now, people laugh, but it's likely we're being taken into conspiracy theory territory. But now, look, [music] it's 2026. Music, films, books, software, printers, heated seats in your car, all on subscription. This is the business model of the era. Let's do the maths. That's 138 pounds a month, over 1,600 pounds a year. And that's before your phone contract, broadband, insurance. So, when HP sells a printer for 130 pounds, but they offer a great deal, 7 pounds a month, well, over 2 years, you pay 168 pounds, 20% more. And after 2 years, the printer still isn't yours and it says that right there in the terms of service. Eight Sleep sells a mattress for two and a half grand, but you have to pay 14 pounds a month forever just to use it. You paid for the thing and you're still renting it. So, do you see the pattern? You pay more, you get less control, and you own nothing. Now, imagine this isn't just about printers. In 2009, the most ironic thing in the history of digital products [music] happened. Amazon remotely deleted George Orwell's 1984 from every Kindle on the planet. No warning, just gone. A book about totalitarian control deleted by a corporation with [music] total control over its customers' devices. You literally couldn't make it up. But legally, when you buy a book, a film, or a song digitally, you're not buying it, you're buying a license, a permission to use it. And that permission can be taken away. Okay, but if subscriptions are so annoying, why don't people just cancel? Well, because companies deliberately make it hard.

[00:03:11]It's called dark patternus. And this is exactly why we started IHCL, the International Humanitarian College of London, because >> [music] >> school doesn't teach you how subscriptions drain your accounts. Neil Mahoney stands for professor. [music] He studied subscription models and he found that companies earn as much as 200% more from people who forgot to cancel. 200%.

[00:03:33]They make double the money from inattention. The issue is that people face obstacles when trying to cancel.

[00:03:40]The button gets buried, you get redirected to a phone call, or they offer a discount. And then they ask three times, "Are you sure? Are you sure?" Some companies actually charge a fee for early cancellation. Now, these are planned strategies [music] to try and hold you back from canceling.

[00:03:55]But there's something bigger going on.

[00:03:57]It's not just about subscriptions, it's about why you can't afford to buy anything in the first place.

[00:04:02]Subscriptions are a symptom, but the main issue runs much deeper than that.

[00:04:07]Let's compare two worlds, your grandparents' world and yours. In 1975, house prices were about two and a half times the average income, meaning a person could save for a deposit much quicker, sometimes in less than a year.

[00:04:21]Imagine that today. But in the UK right now, house prices are more like eight to 10 times the annual salary and the average age of a first-time buyer is 34.

[00:04:32]Average deposits that people put down, 62,000 pounds. And even if you do get a mortgage, the bank wins. Let's say you put down 50 grand on a 300,000 pound flat and take a mortgage at 5%. Well, over 25 years, you pay the bank around 170,000 pounds in interest alone, more than half the price of the flat just for the privilege of borrowing. Now, even ownership is just a different kind of subscription. But in this case, we're subscribing to house ownership through a bank. Now, there's a reason why your grandparents were so obsessed with owning things. Since 1979, productivity is up 60%, but wages only 17%. So, in essence, you work harder, produce more, but you're paid disproportionately less.

[00:05:19]This isn't a story about a lazy generation, it's a story about a system that stopped working for you. There's an economist, Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece, who explained all of this in one word. That word was techno-feudalism. The idea is pretty simple. Basically, where there used to be markets where you bought and sold things, now there are platforms where you rent access. In feudalism, a peasant worked the landlord's land and paid him rent, whereas in 2026, you work on a tech lord's platform and pay him a subscription. Amazon takes 30 to 50% commission from sellers. Apple takes 30% of every App Store purchase. So, the top 1% own 32% of all wealth. The bottom 50% just two and a half. Subscriptions aren't a random trend, they're the logical result of a system where ownership concentrates at the top and everyone else [music] pays rent for music, for films, for software, for housing, for everything. But here's where we need to be clear. Not everything about renting is bad and not everything about owning is good. Think about it.

[00:06:24]>> [music] >> Do you need a drill? No, you need a hole in the wall. The drill sits in the drawer 364 days a year. You use it once and then it owns a piece of your cupboard forever. Same with cars. Your car sits parked 90% of the time. You wash it, insure it, MOT it, park it, fuel it. When you own something, in a weird way, [music] it also owns you. The problem isn't renting, the problem is when renting is your only option, when you can't buy even if you want to, when companies take away the choice. That's when the modern economy becomes a trap instead of a freedom. That's the difference between Airbnb, where you can choose to rent a castle, and a company [music] who forces you to rent a piece of software because they killed the buy option. The question isn't own or rent, it's who gets to decide. Okay, so, what can you actually do about it? Well, step one, audit. You can download apps like the Emma app, which connects to your bank and shows you every recurring charge. And people that do this can save hundreds of pounds a year. Or the hardcore version, subscription detox. Cancel everything for 1 month, [music] all of it, and then resubscribe only to the things you genuinely missed. Step two, negotiate.

[00:07:37]Call up Sky, BT, they raise their prices every year. If you ring them up and say, "I'm leaving," then 65 to 70% of the time, they're going to offer you a new deal. Martin Lewis, money-saving expert, he's been teaching people this trick for over a decade. Step three, use libraries. These are in person or online. 120 million digital checkouts that went through Libby alone in 2024.

[00:08:00]That means free books, free audiobooks on your phone right now. Now, some companies choose not to go subscription.

[00:08:06]Just look at the renaissance of vinyl records, sales up 1,200% since 2005.

[00:08:12]People do still want to own things. The system changed so that you pay more to own less. That's not an accident, it's a business model. But you're not powerless, you can choose. Audit your subscriptions, support companies that respect ownership, spend consciously instead of automatically. The question isn't should I own or should I rent, the question is who gets to decide. So, here's how to start. Make yourself a cuppa, open your banking app, and look at every recurring payment. And then, cancel anything you haven't used in the last month. This is going to take 5 or 10 minutes, but it's the first step back to taking control. [music] Good luck.