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I am not looking forward to the day that medical implants and devices become subscription-based.
Missed too many monthly payments? Your pacemaker gets shut off until your account is no longer delinquent.
This is something that Robots of all movies tried to warn everyone about 20 years ago, specifically with (spoilers for a freakin' 20-year-old movie that no one cares about) Ratchet killing spare parts in order to push his expensive upgrade packages. That sound familiar to what's going on IRL right now?
I think there are a lot of things that are behind subscriptions that you do not realize. One example is computer mice.
They use switches that are only rated for a certain number of clicks before they stop working.
I was going through mice about once every 18 months. I decided to learn to soldier and just replace the switches once they broke.
I found that the switched in the $100 Logitech mouse I bought were only rated for 5 or 10 million clicks. The switch they use can be purchased in a 70 million version. Why didn’t they use that from the start?
I ended up repairing 3 mice and have a lot of extra switches sitting in a bit at home.
planned obsolescence ≠ subscription
This seems like a ridiculously loose use of the word subscription.
Would you say you subscribe to 700km worth of fuel in your car, subscribe to light bulbs in your house, subscribe to your pencil that is getting slowly worn down with each use?
Why not?
Because it's frankly a somewhat ridiculous stretch of the word. That way, anything you purchase more than once in your life would be a subscription (toilet paper, bathroom repairs, even food and water). If anything, it gives more power to toxic subscription services (like how BMW gatekeeps seat heating iirc) by muddying the waters and making their subscriptions seem less outrageous than it is.
Meanwhile I'm on my second Logitech in 15-20 years.
Yo wtf
TIL something totally new. Thank you
5,000,000 / (1.5 x 365.25) = 9,126.169
You’re clicking your mouse 9000 times a day? Every day for 1.5 years?
I basically spend 40hrs a week hosting presentations where I’m constantly drawing and clicking and highlighting text. So maybe.
On top of that I spend another 5-10 hrs a week doing non-meeting stuff.
That's only once every 3 seconds if you use it 8 hours per day for work.
What job or hobby does one have that could possibly reach this threshold every single day for 18 months?
I mean I work 5 days a week so there is that already. That plus playing games on the evenings and weekends and I bet you can near that easily.
I work 5 days a week and game, and I have multiple mice that are 20+ years old and still working. (Microsoft Intellimouse FTW.)
My job revolves around hardware and lifecycle in a corporate environment. If you’re killing a mouse in 18 months, in my opinion, it is either an extraordinary shitty cheap mouse that shouldn’t have passed QA and you should be complaining to the vendor, or you bought solely because it was cheap expecting greatness, or you’re abusing it to the point of failure. Even the cheap OEM mice will easily last 5 years.
If one genuinely uses a mouse that much, then I would leverage the Harbor Freight rule — buy the cheap tool from HF, and if you actually use it enough it breaks, spend the money to get a good one that will last. Better to spend $30-50, even $100, on a mouse every 15-20 years than $10 or band aiding a mouse every 18 months.
——————
As I write this and reading the words back before posting, I realize this might sound condescending or come across as angry, but that is not my intention. I would like to be helpful, learn more, and am open to discussion and differing opinions. Just wanted to call that out.
Start avoiding Logitech then. I have had three of their Anywhere MX mice of various generations, and now an MX Master mouse. They are expensive, and have ALL had switches start failing, that I had to replace and solder. Two of my coworkers have the same mouse, and like clockwork, after one and a half years one started failing. The other one is not at this mark yet, but I bet the same will happen.
I bought a Keychron mouse to replace it. It was also cheaper.
And to clarify, my comment was not to say it was expected that mice would last that short, rather that it is possible to use it enough that it falls within the expected lifespan in clicks of the switches they give.
Osu
housing.
for most, at least. and utilities. the rest can probably be unlocked/hacked/pirated into working without one.
Aren't rent and utilities already subscriptions, pretty much?
"only" is the keyword in the title. Also, no, most utilities are pay for how much you use, not subscription models.
housing
Oxygen
Total recall style?
Spaceballs style
Never seen spaceballs
You should watch Spaceballs. Then you wouldn't be able to brag so proudly about being ignorant.
Toilet. A lot of the world has you paying for water anyway, but just wait until they add premiums for flushing your Toilet and offer an unlimited (Fair Use Applies) subscription
You don't pay wastewater charges where you live?
The planned internet as a subscription idea that has been on and off.
It's teetering, but I believe it's going to happen one day or another. Where, you'll have to pay a subscription for a part of the internet. Like for Streaming or Social Media or whatever else .etc
Your ISP and Netflix already charge subscriptions, what other "part of the internet" is left to charge for? There's several subscriptions for social media as well if you count blue checkmarks and the like.
That's not what I'm referring to.
What I'm referring to is the attempts made to axe Net Neutrality from corrupted chairmen of the FCC who wants to put ISPs in control of what content you're to access, based on tiered internet and wanting to charge you more to access other parts of said content.
I see, so you're talking about ISPs splitting up service into multiple packages like a cable company. I guess multiplying an existing subscription counts as a new subscription 👍
Yup. And they've been trying to do this for years.
They have as better shot as any right now, considering who's in charge of the FCC.
this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2025
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