The subscription model is death by a thousand cuts.

Yes, all SaaS companies love it. Predictable recurring revenue, a beautiful ARR for investors to drool over.

“We’ll charge you every month… for your convenience.” Translation: it’s too much hassle to opt in each month, so we’ll make sure you never have to think about it again.

How many of us just forget subscriptions we stop using? Months—sometimes years—later, we realize we’ve been paying for something we never touch.

And it’s not like we were paying for the option to use it. Not consciously. We forgot.

How is this a just model? The “convenience” narrative is a thin veil over a simple bet: most people will forget to use the service—and to cancel.

At the very least, we could have a law that stands up for us: every company must send a clear notification by email/text/mail that you have an upcoming bill at least 5 days before charging you. Make it opt-out if you want, fine, but default to on. And if companies miss it, penalize them. Heavily.

Why? It gives us a chance to keep choosing the service. It disincentivizes companies from using dark patterns to rob people. Otherwise, you’re just siphoning money from people who got busy.

If you hired me on a monthly retainer as a software engineer, then forgot I existed—you didn’t use me, but I kept charging you—would that feel fair?

Maybe. It’s gray. Contractually fine, sure. But to most of us, it would feel obviously unfair. One side gains; the other side gets nothing. That’s not mutual value. That’s extraction.

These giant subscription services are extractive in the same way. I use a product once, and then I’m on the hook for months. And half the time it’s so damn hard to cancel—cancel is buried five clicks deep, you have to call during “business hours,” or you get guilt-trip popups warning you’ll “lose everything.” And of course the classic: free trial auto-renews by default with the terms in tiny print. Add enough friction and most people won’t spend an hour to cancel a $5–$20 monthly charge.

That’s messed up. You’re robbing people. You’re manipulating people. Stop that shit.

A few subscriptions I love? No problem. Spotify—I’ve been paying for years and I’ll keep paying.

Why? Because I use Spotify all the time.

That random tax software I tried? Once or twice. The Dropbox storage bump? Just for one project.

Let’s be real: companies don’t design policies to be purely beneficial. They deliver value, yes. But if a dark pattern is legal and profitable, most will use it. Thank you, unbridled capitalism.

Companies with actual principles—justice, in this case—would build products to be useful when they’re useful, and unobtrusive when they’re not. Help me leave cleanly when I’m done. Don’t booby-trap the door.

The irony: there are subscription services whose whole business is helping you find and cancel your subscriptions. What a bizarre ecosystem.

The issue isn’t the subscription model. It isn’t even auto-renew. Those can be great when there’s real, ongoing value. The problem is the extractive mindset—taking money when people aren’t using what you sell.

If you’re not delivering value, why should you earn revenue?

And remember: just because it's contractual doesn't mean it's moral.