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Why Men Love American Psycho.txt

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+title-Why Men Love American Psycho
+---end-title---
+
+american psycho is a warning more than
+20 years after its release and american
+psycho continues to maintain its
+cultural grip when i look at youtube
+profiles twitter handles and instagram
+profiles i'm often met with the site of
+patrick bateman when i go online i see
+american psycho memes continuing to spread
+like wildfire
+[Music]
+this is because american psycho is one
+of the only films that expertly taps
+into the psyche of men it's a film that
+leaves you questioning your sense of
+reality it's a film that shows us the
+consequences of masking our personality
+our opinions and true self it shows us
+the hollowness of our atomized cities
+and soul-crushing workspaces and most
+importantly it shows us the absurdity of
+the post-modern era where everyone
+dresses the same talks the same has the
+same opinions as the same plastic masks
+covering their shriveled core
+the movie begins in a high-end
+restaurant where the waiters sound
+exactly the same rabbit with herb french
+fries our pasta tonight is a split rare
+roasted partridge rest in raspberry
+cooling with a sorrel the movie then
+cuts to a table with patrick bateman and
+his wall street associates where they
+engage in a superficial conversation
+the chicks restaurant why aren't we
+doors yet each of these yuppies are
+trapped inside of their bubble now this
+might not seem important but this sets
+the scene for the whole film the key
+theme in this film is that no one
+actually knows each other they don't see
+each other they all put up their masks
+and see each other's facades but i'll
+talk more on that later in the next
+scene they all go off to a nightclub
+where patrick bateman goes to the bar to
+order a drink there patrick bateman has
+met with an aggressive bar lady and this
+is where we see bateman's inner thoughts
+come to the surface
+and play around with your blood
+but her non-responsive attitude makes it
+seem as though this is all within side
+patrick's head this scene gives us an
+excellent look about what this movie is
+all about it's a movie about personas
+and the shadow self a trope that has
+been played on throughout history
+through the biblical stories of angels
+and demons to the yin and the yang these
+are all metaphors that are key to
+understanding our own psychological and
+societal development the pathway
+to
+completion as a human being is through the
+is through the um
+embodiment of the monster
+embodiment of the monster that's the
+discovery of the shadow it's the theme
+of personas which this whole film is
+about the persona is the mask you wear
+in public that you think you are but
+you're not the persona contains all the
+things that modern culture says is good
+and the shadow itself contains
+everything that's not part of that a
+path to a greater character to a more
+effectual approach to life lies in
+integrating those elements of our psyche
+that for too long have been repressed
+and denied and as we see throughout the
+film the bifurcation between patrick's
+shadow self and his public persona
+becomes increasingly problematic
+the film then cuts the infamous scene of
+bateman's morning beautification routine
+with all his layers of conditioners gels
+exfoliators and ice packs the film makes
+a key point in showing the plasticness
+and the absurdity of the efforts we go
+to for crafting our polish public
+persona because we go to all of this
+effort to hide our authentic self
+there is an idea of a patrick bateman
+some kind of abstraction
+but there is no real me
+only an entity something illusory and
+this is seen everywhere within the film
+where we see the bland staleness of
+modern metropolises with skyscrapers
+buildings all being carbon copies of one
+another with each office within each
+building being the same artificial box
+with the same artificial lighting with
+all the people in these offices looking
+talking and acting identically to one
+another
+the cinematography and atmosphere is
+perfectly designed to resemble the
+monotonous drone of post-modern america
+where you live in a box and work for an
+uncaring machine that demands
+productivity where no natural behavior
+is allowed neither in the office or with
+the people around you where everyone's
+wearing the exact same clothes they
+don't want to wear everyone showing up
+to a job they don't want to do and have
+no connection for where every week
+you're trying to fill that hole in the
+sad shadow of a life that you're left
+with and this is what the film warns of
+because when you're consumed in the
+sterile culture that rewards lukewarm
+morality above all else you're
+programmed to never incorporate your
+shadow self which denicia was a key part
+of self-development he described this
+process as going beyond good and evil
+but this can only be done when you
+loosen your mask and escape the confines
+of conventional expectations to do this
+as a man you need aggression and
+expression for your own self-development
+but in a culture that erodes authentic
+self-expression and rewards material
+conformity we start to see the
+consequences of this begin to manifest
+and this is exactly what american psycho
+taps into
+we see this in the next scene where
+patrick is with his fiance on another
+night out in this scene it quickly
+becomes obvious that their relationship
+is only a social mask to keep up their
+public appearances to fit in with the
+rest
+because i want to fit
+in
+with the whole night out being another
+means of blending in and conforming as
+they walk in everything is comedically
+shallow patrick's supposed friend is
+kissing his wife patrick is indifferent
+about it as he's having his own affair
+and the person he's with is drugged out
+of their mind because for these people
+to release their shadow self they have
+to gratify their immediate impulses to
+feel some sort of connection and the
+holiness of this whole situation is
+perfectly summed up with patrick
+bateman's social justice corporate
+political speech
+and oppose racial discrimination and
+promote civil rights while also
+promoting equal rights for women
+most importantly we have to promote
+general social concern
+we have to encourage a return
+to traditional moral values he's just
+forced into being another walking
+talking clone of this corporate culture
+births where the most bland and trite
+opinions are the only way to keep up the
+public persona but meanwhile deep inside
+everyone is living a completely opposite
+life to their supposed values for
+example bateman talks about returning to
+traditional moral values and everyone
+agrees with them while simultaneously
+taking drugs having affairs and hating
+each other with their connections to one
+another being as fake as their masks and
+this hypocrisy continues to unravel as
+the film goes on the first sign of this
+hypocrisy comes in the next scene the
+laundrette where after just talking
+about moral values and cohesion and
+concern for others beyond sheets are
+covered in blood or while bateman is
+screaming at the workers
+listen i cannot understand you
+crazy you're a fool i can't cope with
+the stupid fishy because we're seeing
+bateman's real shadow side the bateman
+that isn't covered up by a mask where
+all his repressed tension is released
+yet as soon as he's faced with someone
+in the same social hierarchy as him his
+whole demeanor changes reverting back to
+the polished and plastic person he was
+when talking about social justice this
+theme of patrick without the mask is a
+hilarious sideswipe of the post-modern
+corporate culture where the most
+outrageous behavior comes from those
+preaching social justice the most it's
+exactly the life these sociopathic
+hollywood executives and politicians
+live preaching to the public these
+flimsy platitudes all whilst being the
+most morally bankrupt people of all
+because you're a hillary supporter yeah
+i am a hillary supporter and they know
+that if sexual assault allegations
+exposed a dark reputation
+the movie mogul had long tried to hide
+harassment
+sexual abuse of women is a widespread
+pervasive issue the independent
+investigation has concluded
+that governor andrew cuomo
+sexually harassed multiple women
+and in doing so violated federal
+and state law however in american psycho
+this is representative of bateman
+watching porn murdering people having
+affairs with drug-added women
+again you're dating the biggest dickweed
+in new york
+which leads on to one of my favorite
+scenes of the film the hilarious card
+scene where no one can recognize each
+other where everyone's card is exactly
+the same where everyone has exactly the
+same job titles because everyone is the
+same everything is trying to fit into
+the sterile environment devoid of
+authenticity and personality they only
+see each other's facades that has
+manifested out of conformity and
+cowardice
+ellen has mistaken me for this [ __ ]
+marcus halberstram it seems logical
+because marcus also works at pnp and in
+fact does the same exact thing i do
+marcus and i even go to the same barber
+although i have a slightly better
+haircut the slightest difference has
+become so important in this world where
+natural behavior is dissolved that
+patrick almost has a nervous breakdown
+over paul allen's business card peaceful
+thickness op-ed
+oh my god
+it even has a watermark
+[Music]
+to release this pent-up anger and
+borrowed up frustration patrick goes out
+to find a homeless man in order for
+patrick to reaffirm his ego and assert
+his place in the social hierarchy bateman
+love simple rates the homeless man
+before bruce lee stabbing him to death
+you know bad you smell eureka [ __ ] do
+you know that
+[Music]
+bateman's public mask is becoming too
+heavy to handle as the culture and
+lifestyle of postmodern new york is
+becoming unbearable for bateman and i'd
+argue this is what the film is trying to
+tell us it's a warning of how toxic
+corporate culture saturates our psyche
+and most importantly stunts our
+emotional development the absurdity of
+this post-modern lifestyle is then
+perfectly summed up at the christmas
+party where everyone looks the same and
+is only caring about business
+hey hamilton have a holly jolly
+christmas is alan still handling the
+fisher account where patrick bateman is
+disgusted by how disconnected and
+neurotic the party is and at this point
+he can't help but let his mask slip
+patrick you're such a grinch what does
+mr grinch want for christmas
+and don't say breast implants again
+patrick goes over to paul allen and
+invites him for dinner paul agrees but
+only on the condition that he wants to
+meet patrick's fiance while bateman only
+wants to meet paul allen for his own
+personal agenda however throughout the
+dinner as they become more and more
+inebriated the mask slips off for both
+of the characters with their inner
+thoughts bubbling up to the surface
+great ass goes out with that loser
+patrick vapin what a dork
+another martini paul with bateman feeling
+inferior after being caught a door can
+seem the success of paul allen brings a
+wave of pressure that his mask can no
+longer handle
+[Music]
+the shallowness and ridiculousness of
+this whole situation is then perfectly
+summed up at the scene of bateman
+dragging paul's dead body into his car
+as he's dragging away this body bag his
+colleague notices him but only to
+question the brand of bag rather than to
+question the morbid intentions the bag
+is being used for
+where did you get that overnight bag
+[Music]
+sean paul gautier however in the
+following scene it pans back to bateman
+in his office just where he started
+before listening to music in his own
+little world almost to him that all of
+this was just a fantasy inside of his
+head it's this pattern of daytime
+monotony a nightly release that repeats
+throughout the film and that's why i
+believe the killings throughout this
+film are a metaphor for bateman releasing
+his shadow self it's all to escape the
+drab meaningless culture that is eroding
+his inner self and i think this is why
+so many men flock to american psycho
+because so many men find themselves
+repeating a similar pattern a pattern of
+wearing your mask through the day and
+stifling your inner self to releasing
+the shadow at night through excessive
+hedonistic behavior but to fully
+understand why this happens we first
+need to understand the looking glass
+self sociologist charles cooley
+theorized that people develop their
+sense of identity through their
+perception of others views using social
+interaction as a type of mirror people
+use the judgments they receive from
+others and the culture around them to
+measure their own character values and
+behavior so when you have a looking
+glass that erodes character humor and
+authentic self-expression your identity
+erodes and you become invisible to those
+around you and if you can't express your
+abilities human character you may start
+to feel a profound sense of emptiness a
+sense of worthlessness and
+soul-destroying nihilism and patrick
+bateman represents this everyday
+repression of expression in a
+corporatized mega metropolis world where
+the cleanliness and sterile nature of
+everyday life becomes so unbearable that
+the um self becomes extreme where your
+shadow self metastasizes in response to
+your eroding identity you may want more
+power you may want control you may want
+to tell everyone what you really think
+is that all you ever have to contribute
+what about dinner
+or in the case of patrick bateman this
+may emerge in the form of murderous
+fantasies because patrick bateman's inner
+shadow is swallowing him up earth just
+opens up and swallows them this is why
+throughout the film we see patrick
+releasing his inner shadow at home
+watching either extreme porn and horror
+films in a casual manner just to fill
+something or using prostitutes and drugs
+which is why bateman later admits that
+he's not very good at controlling his
+willpower i don't want to ruin your
+willpower
+that's all right
+i'm not very good at controlling it
+anyway because the willpower to maintain
+the mask is unbearable the lashing out
+at his colleagues what's the matter no
+shiatsu this morning touching me
+hold on there little buddy the erratic
+behavior using hookers degrading those
+low in the social hierarchy and
+eventually breaking up with his fiance
+is all a coping mechanism they're not
+terribly important to me
+[Music]
+the cherry on top of all of this is that
+patrick realizes everyone around him is
+going through exactly the same thing
+everyone is so wrapped up in their own
+mask their extreme behavior can't help
+but unravel
+thanks patrick
+this struggle to escape the perfectly
+crafted public persona has ended up with
+a painting right here this painting is
+part of a collection called men of the
+cities as you can see all these
+paintings faces are hidden away with
+their colours being a bland black and
+white capturing the feeling of
+atomization and the need to escape the
+confines of their surroundings which is
+why these paintings serve as the perfect
+metaphor for what the film is trying to
+warn us of
+
+now all of this stuff is building up to
+the climax of the film where bateman is
+thrown into a full-on breakdown where
+his psyche becomes fully psychotic
+feeding a cat into an atm machine
+shooting police and anyone in his way
+[Music]
+but with all the overtop explosions the
+people he shoots never actually dying
+and the surroundings staying exactly the
+same the film points to the fact that
+this is just bateman's pent-up reverie of
+aggression and defiance of convention or
+in other words it's an extreme fantasy
+to imagine a world where he can release
+his extreme shadow self in the real
+world this repression reaches its climax
+with bateman's final phone call where his
+breakdown finally becomes visible to all
+of those around him
+patrick i can't hear you what am i doing
+she's sounding so big
+and yet the sad truth is no one cares
+patrick's lawyer doesn't recognize him
+don't you know who i am
+i'm not davis i'm patrick bateman
+the people around him continue the same
+superficial conversations now where do
+we have reservations
+i mean i'm not really hungry but i'd
+like to have reservations someplace the
+people around him are indifferent the
+culture uncaring and the cycle of
+repression repeats itself this blunt
+ending is in a way more disturbing than
+any of the murderous fantasies because
+it's real all the repression masks all
+the lives of quiet desperation is just
+part and parcel of life in the modern
+world where we've been taught that
+people who think differently are a
+danger to society and then they must be
+censored into silence where we are numb
+to a drab deluge of hollow meaningless
+plastic culture that shows us nothing
+but vicious hostility to anyone trying
+to express authenticity the whole point
+of this film is to show the fundamental
+importance of self-expression and human
+connection something that nihilistic
+materialism just can't replace we need
+friendship love and community all the
+things that the radical atomization and
+isolation of modern life destroys which
+is why american psycho serves as an
+essential message a message telling us
+to rethink the destruction of the
+institutions and traditions that
+supported the very things that foster
+prosperity and happiness but sadly this
+is a message that has become all too
+forgotten

You Will Never Own Anything (But You'll Pay Forever).txt

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+title-You Will Never Own Anything (But You'll Pay Forever)
+---end-title---
+
+You will never own anything. The death of ownership is here, and the subscription model industry has exploded since 2014. Buy now, pay later is booming, and debt is on the rise. Gen Z are the guinea pigs in this new experiment. Today, Generation Z is in record levels of debt while earning far less than the generations before them.
+
+So let's take a look at the day-to-day life of someone growing up in the anti-ownership economy. However young or old you are, the first thing most people do when they wake up is look at their phones. Over 80% of people do this in the first 15 minutes of the day. For some people it's just an alarm clock, but most are plugging into the digital world as soon as possible.
+
+The smartphone has become the starting point for nearly everyone's day, and it was also what first enabled the subscription model to really take off. Before their meteoric rise in both functionality and price, phones generally weren't something you bought through a rolling contract. Some people paid a monthly bill for access to the cellular network, but most of the time that wasn't for the physical device itself. Instead, before smartphones came around, the devices were cheap and more disposable. People would pay upfront for phones, as well as all other tech products. This even extended to software, music, and other products that are really just packets of data. People expected to pay once for something, then own it forever. That was how the rest of the world worked.
+
+When smartphones and high-speed internet came along, they changed the entire game. Phones became high-tech gateways into the wider world of services. They also got a lot more sophisticated and expensive, pushing them out of reach for most consumers. Of course, some of this was due to higher production costs, but a much larger part of the price hike was because tech companies realized they could justify these much higher prices. If that wasn't enough, it gave mobile phone companies a huge opportunity to change their entire business model. Instead of just selling the phones as individual devices, they could push forward the idea of paying for both the device and the network in one single contract. It was just one small step for consumers, and for many of them it was a better option—instead of paying hundreds upfront, they could pay it off over a few years, keeping it generally affordable. And this didn't seem like much of a big change either, because the data, texts, and calls were already often a monthly payment.
+
+But why were these companies so intent on pushing this kind of business model? Well, the author Terry Pratchett came up with a classic example that shows why being poor generally means that you end up paying far more for the exact same things. Imagine that a really good pair of boots—the kind that will last you a decade—cost $100. A man on minimum wage likely couldn't afford all of that at once. He can't spend the time saving up for them either, as he needs the shoes now so that he can work in the first place. So he goes for the cheaper option: a $10 pair of boots that don't really keep his feet dry and only last around 6 months to a year at best. Over time, this man will spend more money on his boots than the rich man who just bought the nice ones in the first place. Meanwhile, despite paying more, he'll still have wet feet.
+
+A subscription model is like an even worse version of this. Imagine that for just $3.99 a month, the man could subscribe to "Boots Plus." They provide a service which gives you access to a pair of their cheap boots, as well as monthly repairs, maintenance, and replacements as well. While the initial cost is even less for the service, over time it'll mean paying about $48 a year for boots. Over a decade, this will cost nearly five times more than the expensive boots ever did upfront.
+
+So it's pretty obvious now why companies are all trying to switch their customers onto the subscription model. It simply makes them far more money, and there's a whole host of other hidden tricks and benefits for them.
+
+But for now, let's get back to Generation Z, who are nearly all hooked into the subscription models. They dominate nearly everything they do, including when they first wake up. But it isn't just their phones. If it's a weekday, most people in Generation Z will either be heading to school, college, or work, and most of them will be listening to music as they go. In this modern world, most people try to distract themselves from their surroundings in whatever way they can, all while keeping the dopamine pipeline flowing for the brain.
+
+Music is yet another massive industry that has fully embraced the subscription model. At first, it just wasn't feasible. The rise of Napster and other file-sharing services made getting free music incredibly easy to access, as long as you knew how to use a computer. The problem was there really wasn't any way to monetize this, because it was nearly impossible to provide a better service than these shady websites did. The record labels just wouldn't let anyone do it legally. That was until Spotify came along and forced it all to change. They co-opted the file-sharing business model for free unlimited access—and they even illegally downloaded music to fill the first versions of the app. The only difference was that they played ball with the record labels and worked out a deal with them, by passing nearly all the costs on to the artists and the consumers. They convinced them to give up some of their control over the rights of the music. To this deal, all they needed was a simple subscription model to keep the money flowing in. It let the record companies redefine the deal with the artists, paying them fractions of pennies per stream rather than a cut of all their album sales.
+
+Consumers got a rough deal as well. You see, most people don't actually listen to tons of new music all the time—they just listen to their favorite songs over and over. And as a result, Spotify's algorithms are designed around this, rarely promoting music people haven't heard already. Most people end up getting the same thing they would have gotten with a modest collection of records or digital albums, but they'll be paying for it for the rest of their lives instead of just once.
+
+Even subscription services that let you make concrete purchases don't actually grant you ownership of anything. Sony clearly demonstrated this in 2023 when they removed tons of Discovery shows from people's digital libraries, even though they'd already bought them.
+
+In fact, we've actually lost so much with the subscription revolution, including the basic idea of ownership itself. Meanwhile, companies can abuse the many tricks that are now possible with this business model, as it's just so much easier to lure people into subscription models. Giving out free CDs or free samples of any product isn't guaranteed to make people come back, but free, easy-to-join trials, on the other hand, are far easier and much cheaper. Even if loads of people go in with the intention of canceling it later, lots of them will forget. Most people just don't even realize how many subscriptions they really have.
+
+Some companies like Amazon set up traps by making a subscription the default option for some of their products. Meanwhile, they call it "Subscribe and Save," implying they're doing all of this to save you money. And it's a problem that's growing surprisingly fast. Unused subscriptions went from costing the UK £306 million in 2022 to £688 million just one year later, and it's probably the same all across the Western world.
+
+The focus changes from the consumer making the active choice to buy something again to the consumer choosing not to continue paying. Even upsetting is easier with subscription services, as lots of companies artificially restrict features, gatekeeping them for a more expensive premium plan. And if that's not enough, they can use a trick that Amazon, Netflix, and many other big companies have recently introduced. Instead of just raising the price, you can introduce a new subscription level with adverts. You can use this to replace the old basic subscription, which becomes the new premium subscription. The old premium subscription, with whatever add-ons you can invent, becomes a premium plus—and now you can charge even more for that one as well. And if all the major companies agree to this, then there's really nothing the consumer can do.
+
+These companies have learned that, despite the backlash, they often end up making so much more money from the people who stick around compared to the customers they lose. All this, and now so many companies are doing this, the actual service on offer has gotten so much worse. There was a short period in time where a Netflix subscription would give you tons of different films and shows to watch, but now all the content is split up across a dozen different apps, which all cost far more individually than the old Netflix used to—and you still get ads on top. And it's almost worse than cable used to be, without ever actually owning anything.
+
+So Generation Z are already on the back foot. Unlike previous generations, they don't own things like their music, and even without inflation, they're going to be paying far more than previous generations did for the exact same things.
+
+But unfortunately, subscription models aren't the only thing that's changing. Lots of the older members of Generation Z, after going through their morning routines, will end up at work. But lots of Generation Z is already checking out of the system, because no matter how much they work, it isn't going to make their lives any better. Costs of living are incredibly high across the developed world, and this affects young people much more than older and richer generations. For lots of people, this means they're barely staying afloat, and they're definitely not building up any savings.
+
+A Bank of America survey of their adult Gen Z customers showed that over half didn't even have savings to cover just 3 months of expenses. 46% have also had to rely on their parents or family financially just to get by. They're living paycheck to paycheck—one or two bad days could financially ruin them. They're the ones who are comparatively well off. Lots of Generation Z don't have access to those kinds of privileges. Instead, they're sinking further into debt to keep up.
+
+Since 2022, credit card balances for Generation Z have increased by more than 50%. The average balance for someone aged 22 to 24 in 2023 was nearly $3,000—26% more than it was for Millennials at the same age just 10 years ago. And at the same time, delinquency rates have also risen as well.
+
+These aren't signs that Generation Z are naturally careless or looser with their money compared to Millennials—more so, it's the conditions that have changed. They're simply squeezing them harder. It all means that a larger part of Generation Z are working just to pay off their debts and survive. There isn't any room for building a life. And that's for the people lucky enough to have a job in the first place.
+
+Every young person knows just how hard it is to get a job in the modern world, especially when you're fresh out of school or university. Even the lowest-paying jobs are becoming even harder to get nowadays. In fact, it's not uncommon for companies to force people into multiple interviews, team-building exercises, and other pointless tasks. The kinds of jobs that let you climb society's ladder are even worse—they lie behind layers upon layers of time-destroying bureaucracy. First, there are the standard AI systems that filter out most applications based on just random keywords and invisible tests. And once you get past those, you'll get your CV and application read by an overworked, stressed HR intern who's often far less qualified in your field than you are. Then there are the tests, interviews, group exercises, callbacks, and more.
+
+Sites like LinkedIn have monetized this process and make more money the harder the whole process is. Whole industries have sprung up to take advantage of the desperate people just looking for stable work. Eventually, if you're one of the lucky few that does get a job offer, then all it does is elevate you to the first group who are paying off their debts—but they still probably won't own anything either.
+
+The commute home is yet another example of this. It's another subscription service—again, this time though it's mandatory for all but the richest. Either you travel on public transport, which in some cities can cost as much as your rent, or you use a car—something that most Gen Z can only buy with credit. Today, even a used car is out of reach for most of Generation Z. The cheaper ones will break down and cost thousands to repair anyway. The most expensive ones are just as expensive as new cars.
+
+They've actually started integrating further subscription plans into the cars themselves. Until recently, BMW were planning to lock their heated seats behind a monthly paywall, even though the feature was already built into the car—showing the absurdly dystopian levels of how far the practice of blocking off things that used to come for free has really become. Instead, they reversed that decision—but not for any moral reasons. Instead, they'll just stick to charging for software features that they could have included anyway, like parking assistance.
+
+Companies are always trying to erode the will of consumers to resist these creeping changes. They only roll them back when they get such a massive backlash that it will actually impact their sales.
+
+Once they're home, Gen Z are then confronted by yet another thing they won't own—which should be obvious at this point. If you don't have any hope of owning your own music or a car, then a house or a flat is definitely out of reach. The average price of a home in the UK has nearly reached £300,000, and similarly in the US it's around $419,000. In the big cities, it's so much worse—to just rent in Manhattan, it costs almost $5,000 on average just for a tiny little box with barely any bedrooms.
+
+But just on average, Generation Z first-time buyers will pay over £100,000 of mortgage repayments in the first 5 years—yet not that long ago, people only paid about £74,000 in today's money for exactly the same thing. And that's only if they can actually convince a bank to let them buy a home in the first place.
+
+But most people aren't buying homes in the middle of nowhere. If you're trying to make money and get a good job, you end up in a city where you just can never save any money. And these high rents mean that most people in Generation Z will never have enough savings for a deposit. And banks today want you to easily be able to afford everything, which creates an excruciating contradiction. Gen Z are left paying tons more in rent than their house would cost in a mortgage—while still not being able to actually buy the home they're living in.
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+As your position and security in society is purely based on who your parents were, and as these assets' value rises, it means it will always be completely out of reach for most people in society—and only in reach for people who inherited it.
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+I think a lot of people know there's fundamental intergenerational inequity, which is because salaries are taxed very highly, and wealth—particularly capital gains from your main property—are barely taxed at all. And that leads to, I think, a kind of absurdity—which is that one piece written about this is: it's not actually intergenerational inequality that's the problem; it's going to be intragenerational inequality when people start inheriting houses or not inheriting houses. Because you can literally have the situation where you can work incredibly hard for 30 years and reach a position of some eminence in a business or in an institution, and because your parents happened to live in an area of low house prices or didn't own a house at all, you're still living somewhere crap. Whereas your underlings—whose parents lived in certain high-value areas—are basically swanning around in palaces, going on cruises all the time. Meaning you just get rich if you're already rich, and the class ceiling is unbreakable.
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+And now, as we're reaching the end of the day, most people from Generation Z will be relaxing with TV shows, films, and music—that most likely come from yet another streaming service and a subscription plan. But for lots of Generation Z, it goes even further than that. Many of them won't even own the TV they're watching things on or the speakers they're using to listen to music.
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+It's all part of yet another evolution in the anti-ownership economy: buy now, pay later schemes. At first, nobody expected this to ever take off—even the supposed experts in the field. It all began in 2008 when three students from the Stockholm School of Economics competed in a university entrepreneurship competition. They pitched their idea for an e-commerce business revolving around this new type of selling products, but it was just laughed out of the room. Reportedly, the panel of judges told them the idea would never make any money and that they should just give up.
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+Despite losing the competition, their confidence remained unshaken, and they founded the company anyway. And after months of work, they finally found investors to join. Three years later, their new company, Klarna, had already expanded from Sweden into the rest of Europe, and today they're aiming for an IPO valuing the company at around $15 billion.
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+Now, this might be a great story for the founders, but it wasn't for the rest of the world. The rise of Klarna represents the rise of a new type of consumption: taking out debt for trivial purchases. These so-called buy now, pay later schemes are the apex of this entire problem. Debt and a lack of ownership fuel endless consumerism and exploitation. Their 0% interest promises sound enticing at first, but once you miss a payment, the late fees add up, and eventually they can push people into bankruptcy.
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+And tragically, this isn't the only reason people use these loans. The more desperate often rely on them for groceries and everyday essentials. It means that lots of Generation Z don't even own the food in their own fridge.
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+All the things we've discussed today are part of a global movement that's eroding the very idea of ownership itself. While Generation Z is bearing the brunt of it, it's still something that affects all of us. In many ways, it's a necessary consequence of inequality—the fact that a smaller and smaller proportion of people earn nearly all of the wealth creates the need for these exact conditions.
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+In another way, though, it's the evolution of consumer culture itself. Actual ownership is unnecessary when it's the experience of consumption that people crave. Modern services are completely focused on this—they make the user experience as smooth as possible. When you're paying, everything is there on demand; it's all accessible. Meanwhile, free users are constantly badgered, harassed, and interrupted to try and push them towards paying. They're trying to turn you into an addict—someone who's so enthralled in the experience of consumption that they're unaware of how badly they're getting ripped off.
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+The only real barrier to not paying for digital content, for example, is that it's annoying and time-consuming. Most people don't care one bit about the ethics of it or the legality, because the laws are generally so rarely enforced. It's only the convenience that holds people back and pushes them towards the legal paid alternatives. And this shows us just how strong this desire for instant content has become in the average consumer.
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+To beat this, you have to rise above it. And while you can't change the wider economic realities or the appetites of the average consumer, you can change your own priorities. Because if enough people actually value true ownership, there will always be an economic niche in serving them.
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+Every generation faces new challenges, and for Generation Z, one of theirs is to resist this tempting but exploitative world they've grown up in.