It turns out I’m a rarity: of all the last or surnames in the U.S., Stoppel ranks at 52,970th from the top of the charts. Still, with some 6.2 million Stoppels, it’s not surprising to discover at least two more of us work for newspapers.
The one near Emporia, Kans., seems to specialize in obituaries and sports; another, Sara Stoppel, is a staff writer for the Thunder Bay, Ontario, Argus. Thunder Bay is an amalgam of Fort William and Port Arthur, which 1970 merged. Her areas are murders and agriculture.
Very Distant Cousin Sara recently wrote “Do we even own anything anymore?” as she fired a salvo across the bow of firms that rent or lease goods and services while misleading customers into thinking they really bought or own something. Companies sugarcoat such transactions calling their bills for providing them “subscription fees.”
Airlines have been using subscription fees, which some call a form of gouging, for years. We pay for food and drink, but extra for pillows and blankets on a subscription basis lasting throughout the flight.
The concept has spread to agriculture. Manufacturers sell a farmer a tractor or combine, but the contract mandates that only a company-certified mechanic can work on it, right down to a lube job and oil change.
Rolls Royce will gladly sell you a car, but if you have a problem in beautiful downtown Nebraska, you do not get to own the key to the hood. They do and charge a huge annual service fee to unlock the hood.
The manufacturer also locks the wheels so that only their repair people can change a tire. If you can afford a Roller, you may quibble less about tack-on fees.
For centuries, farmers either bought their seeds from a store or used their own saved from the previous season. Today, planting one’s own corn or soybean seeds, especially from some Big-Ag corporations, is illegal. The company owns the rights to them, even if the farmer bought them. They sue and usually win.
As an aside, should you ever enroll in one of the ancestry companies that traces long-lost relatives via your DNA, you cede the right to own your own body. The contract in the ultra-fine print makes it clear you just turned over your rights to the thing that makes you, you.
People not owning what they thought they bought dates back at least to 2007 when my friends George and Dawn were going on a tour of China. Instead of packing 20 lbs. of travel books and guides, he bought a Kindle Reader with e-books.
My late wife Pat thought it was such a good idea, she got me one for our upcoming trip. Seeing Kindle offered 60,000+ books free, I stocked up.
A year later, when I was halfway through one purchased book, the service disappeared. We learned later Kindle was ordered to delete it from our devices due to a copyright dispute,
Seems we do not buy or own the book in a traditional sense, but have the right to reread it as many times as we liked. We bought the device, the books we selected were clearly marked “BUY for x amount,” but their definition of a purchase is common only unto them.
Imagine the uproar if a bookstore representative turned up at your door in the middle of night ordering you to hand over a copy of the book you thought you had bought last week. Oh, and without compensation. That’s what Amazon Kindle did and warns they can do again without notice.
Covid-19 did wonders for streaming services. Remember those bad old days? We could not go to big box stores to buy entertainment, libraries were closed or highly restricted, meaning we had to sign up for steaming services to get our fill. Often, for a family, it meant several streaming services so everyone could be happy. The money started to add up.
After we came out of the pandemic, it became near-impossible to unsubscribe from these no longer needed services/ Then, surprise-surprise, rates went up.
So it works too for magazines, other periodicals and news subscription services. For years I read Country Life magazine online and received the daily e-version of the London Times. Same song, new verse. The rates went up and up and they made it next to impossible to ensnare myself from them. All they wanted was my money.
Las Vegas sits at or near the acme of such rackets. Check along the Strip.
Seems everyone’s finding a new fee to add to our bills. It’s not just in the U.S. either. In France (which means “coming to an American restaurant near you”), they charge for each piece of silverware diners use. In Austria, ice cream parlors tack tack on fees for dishwashing, disposable trash receptacles or both.
Finally newspapers, gobbled up nationwide by billionaires, hedge funds and/or mega-corporations. Fewer than 25 years ago, a medium-sized town north of here had two daily newspapers with weekend editions. They had reporters and photographers, sports writers, an editorial board and staff who sold ads to local businesses.
Since the buyouts, that city is down to one paper published three times a week. It’s light on local reporting and fills most space between ads from wider subscription services. The paper is of lower quality and smaller sized, but still charges more and more.
For us grouchy old men, local weekly Wilcox Newspapers are owned by one traveling party, publisher Mike, but remain now and here and personal. Provide us content and/or contact local staff you may see writing or taking pictures at events, you’ll receive a human response.
Commerce changes constantly seeking money with each technological advance allowing firms to progress even more. What doesn’t change are we mugs suspected to pay and pay.
