Streaming services raised prices. Video game subscriptions raised prices. Even the apps you use to avoid human interaction now cost more than actual human interaction.
This is what we've built. A generation of people who thought they'd outsmarted the system by staying home in sweatpants, only to discover that corporations charge rent on sweatpants now too.
Netflix went from $8 to $23 while somehow producing less content you want to watch. Disney+ costs more than actual Disneyland if you prorate it over a decade. PlayStation Network charges you sixty bucks a year for the privilege of using your own internet connection. Xbox Game Pass just bumped prices again because someone in Redmond did the math and realized you f*cking peasants will pay anything to avoid going outside.
The beautiful part? You can't even pirate your way out anymore. Games require always-online connections. Streams have DRM wrapped tighter than a pharaoh. Your Roku TV snitches on you to seventeen different ad networks before you even press play.
Home used to be free. Now it's a subscription service.
Remember when "fun at home" meant you owned a DVD? Owned a game cartridge? Owned literally anything? Now you rent the right to watch The Office for the third time while Peacock decides whether you deserve access this month.
Retail traders thought they were clever. Cut the cable bill. Cancel the gym. Stop going to bars. Just stay home and stack capital for their next 0DTE SPY calls. Turns out Spotify Premium and Xbox Live and HBO Max and Paramount Plus and Apple Arcade add up to more than the cable package Grandpa had, except now there's nothing to watch and your calls expired worthless anyway.
The cost-saver became the cost. Staying in is the new going out, except you're still broke and now you're fat too.
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