The Disappearing Consumer: How Subscription Economies Are Quietly Erasing Ownership

By Yui Suzuki Feb. 20, 2025

Ownership once defined capitalism. To buy was to possess—to exchange money for agency. Yet in 2025, that paradigm is fading fast. From entertainment and transport to housing and software, global consumption is shifting from possession to access. The rise of subscription-based business models has created an economy where individuals pay perpetually but own nothing.

According to the McKinsey Global Access Economy Report (2025), over 78 percent of global adults use at least one recurring subscription service, and the average urban consumer now maintains 12 active subscriptions, up from just 4 in 2018. The global subscription market is worth US$1.5 trillion, projected to double by 2030. But beneath the convenience lies a deeper transformation: the erosion of economic autonomy in exchange for algorithmic convenience.

From Capitalism to “Rentalism”

Traditional capitalism rewarded accumulation. Subscription capitalism rewards dependence. The Harvard Business Review Subscription Model Analysis (2025) describes this as “rentalism”—an economic system where users perpetually rent access to goods, services, and even digital identities.

Spotify, Netflix, and Adobe pioneered the model, but it now extends far beyond media. BMW charges monthly fees for heated seats; Tesla offers “Full Self-Driving” features via subscription; Amazon locks smart-home hardware behind recurring Prime membership tiers. Even basic productivity—word processing, design, or file storage—is now leased rather than owned.

The consumer’s wallet has been replaced by a metered gate.

The Illusion of Choice

Subscription models promise flexibility: cancel anytime, pay only for what you use. Yet behavioral economics tells another story. The London School of Economics Behavioral Policy Review (2025) found that 63 percent of users forget to cancel unused subscriptions, and companies design interfaces that exploit cognitive inertia—burying cancellation options and renewing contracts by default.

The result is the “subscription treadmill.” Consumers mistake access for ownership, convenience for control. In aggregate, this behavioral drag extracts billions in passive revenue: U.S. households now spend US$219 monthly on unused digital subscriptions (Deloitte Consumer Retention Survey, 2025).

Choice has become architecture—designed not to empower, but to retain.

Data as Collateral

In the subscription economy, payment is only part of the transaction. Data is the rest. Every subscription platform tracks usage, preferences, and engagement to refine pricing and content algorithms. The OECD Digital Market Structure Report (2025) estimates that the top 50 subscription-based firms collectively collect over 12 petabytes of user data per day.

This data asymmetry grants corporations unprecedented power to anticipate, manipulate, and monetize behavior. Subscription models create feedback loops that reinforce dependency: the more users engage, the more platforms personalize, and the harder it becomes to leave.

In effect, consumers are no longer buying products—they are feeding them.

The Shrinking of Ownership Rights

The cultural shift from ownership to access has profound legal consequences. Digital “purchases” often come with license agreements allowing companies to revoke access at will. In 2024, Amazon remotely deleted thousands of purchased e-books due to regional copyright disputes; Spotify has removed entire artist catalogs without refunding users.

The European Consumer Law Institute (ECLI Platform Accountability Review, 2025) warns that digital consumers possess “usufruct” rather than ownership—temporary usage rights that expire with corporate discretion. As physical property disappears, consumer rights regress to pre-industrial fragility.

The 21st century citizen owns more subscriptions than belongings.

The Economics of Perpetual Rent

From a macroeconomic perspective, subscription models convert one-time purchases into recurring revenue streams—an accountant’s dream but a consumer’s curse. The World Bank Consumption Cycle Report (2025) shows that subscription economies reduce household liquidity by 12–15 percent over five years, suppressing discretionary spending and increasing long-term financial vulnerability.

For firms, the predictability of recurring revenue inflates valuations. For consumers, it erodes budgeting flexibility. The result is a steady transfer of economic power from households to corporations.

The post-ownership economy produces stable profits and unstable citizens.

The Greenwashing of Access

Tech companies market subscription models as sustainable alternatives to ownership: less waste, fewer products, more efficient resource use. Yet the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP Circular Economy Audit, 2025) found the opposite. Frequent hardware upgrades driven by rental models—phones, scooters, appliances—actually increase electronic waste by 19 percent due to planned obsolescence cycles.

When consumers stop owning things, durability stops mattering. The subscription economy incentivizes replacement, not repair. Green marketing conceals extractive engineering.

The Psychological Cost of Temporary Living

Ownership anchors identity. It connects individuals to time and memory—homes, books, music collections, heirlooms. The loss of ownership, psychologists argue, weakens the continuity of self. The American Psychological Association (APA Consumer Identity Study, 2025) found that heavy subscription users report 24 percent lower satisfaction with consumption and a higher incidence of “temporal anxiety”—the fear of losing access to things they rely on.

The emotional contract of capitalism—work, earn, own—is being rewritten as work, pay, access. Stability is no longer purchased; it is streamed.

The Corporate Feudal Model

Economists increasingly describe subscription capitalism as “neo-feudal.” The Columbia Business School Economic Power Report (2025) outlines a structural parallel: corporations as landlords, consumers as digital tenants, and data as rent. The concentration of ownership in platforms creates digital serfdom—where participation requires perpetual payment.

Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon alone now control over 60 percent of global subscription-based consumer spending. Their dominance is enforced not by law, but by habit. Opting out is socially and economically punitive.

Freedom, once defined by ownership, is now measured by subscription status.

Policy Interventions: Reclaiming Consumer Autonomy

To restore balance, regulators and economists propose three key reforms:

1. Right to Offline Ownership – Mandate that all digital goods include an ownership-based option (e.g., perpetual license).

2. Automatic Expiry Disclosure – Require platforms to notify users of non-use and simplify cancellation to a single click.

3. Subscription Taxation Reform – Treat recurring payments as long-term contracts subject to consumer protection law.

The OECD Consumer Resilience Framework (2025) estimates such measures could save households US$180 billion annually and reduce data exploitation by 27 percent.

In a market where everything is rentable, regulation becomes the last form of ownership.

The Future: The Economy of Absence

The subscription model will not vanish—it will evolve. But unless citizens reclaim the right to own, they risk becoming perpetual tenants in an economy built on access without agency. The danger is not that people will stop consuming—it’s that they will stop possessing.

Capitalism once promised freedom through property. The subscription economy promises convenience through captivity.

Works Cited

“Global Access Economy Report.” McKinsey & Company, 2025.

 “Subscription Model Analysis.” Harvard Business Review, 2025.

 “Behavioral Policy Review.” London School of Economics, 2025.

 “Consumer Retention Survey.” Deloitte Insights, 2025.

 “Digital Market Structure Report.” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2025.

 “Platform Accountability Review.” European Consumer Law Institute (ECLI), 2025.

 “Consumption Cycle Report.” World Bank, 2025.

 “Circular Economy Audit.” United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2025.

 “Consumer Identity Study.” American Psychological Association (APA), 2025.

 “Economic Power Report.” Columbia Business School, 2025.

 “Consumer Resilience Framework.” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2025.