It's Time to End our Subscription Addiction
There was a time, not that long ago, when the funniest writing in the world was happening on Twitter. And the undisputed philosopher-king among Twitter shit-posters was an account called dril. It is said, amongst my friends, that there’s a dril quote for everything, and I’d like to use one as an epigraph for this piece:
“Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Candles $3,600 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying”
The joke is, obviously, that one shouldn’t spend $3,600 on candles. Those candles are too expensive – or you’re buying too many of them. But really, from an “economy” perspective, the issue is not the outgoing on candles but the relative cost compared to, say, rent. Spending almost 5 times as much on candles as rent seems a sufficiently absurd idea that we recognise it, immediately, as a joke. If someone was renting a $40,000 pcm apartment overlooking Hyde Park, would I be so shocked that they’re also spending $4k on candles? Not at all. The joke there would be quite different – the joke would be on us.
This is, I think, the most important question facing the entertainment industry, and broader media landscape, right now. The candles are – if it’s not apparent already – a metaphor. They represent life’s luxuries, big and small. Food, rent, utilities: these are unavoidable expenditures. Streaming platforms, video games, restaurants, football season tickets, craft beer, porn, Ubers home at 3am, artisan sourdough deliveries, the latest iPhone, a gold ornamental dolphin, new clothes in the sales, new clothes not in the sales (but really great value, I promise!), and, yes, a patchouli and sandalwood scented candle: these are life’s avoidable, but delicious, expenditures.
