Someday We’ll Pay for Air (We Already Pay for Water)

My memo:

“They’ll sell the things we take for granted now.

Like how we buy water.”

Two lines. The second one is the evidence for the first.

Water was the warm-up

Think about water for a second.

It falls from the sky. It comes out of a tap. And yet almost every store, gas station and airport sells it in bottles. Nobody finds that strange anymore.

When I was a kid in Korea, nobody bought water. If you’d told people they’d pay for it someday, they would have laughed. Why pay for something you could drink straight from the tap, or from the ground?

The memo’s point is simple. If water could become a product, what’s next?

Air, in a can

This one sounds like a joke. It started as one.

In 2015, CNBC reported on a Canadian company called Vitality Air, based in Alberta. It sold cans of fresh air from the Rocky Mountains, from places like Banff and Lake Louise. The main market, according to the report, was China.

Earlier that year, co-founder Moses Lam told CBC News that he and his partner, Troy Paquette, started the company “as a bit of a joke,” by putting a Ziploc bag of air on eBay. It sold for 99 cents.

Then they made it a business. CNBC reported a 7.7-liter can of Banff air was selling for about 23 Canadian dollars.

The company’s website, as CNBC quoted it, made the same argument my memo did, about water. Its line: “Air is going the same way.”

Somebody in Alberta got there before my memo did. With a can.

Air, at the gas station

Here’s a quieter example.

Gas stations in the U.S. usually have an air pump for your tires. Some of them charge for it. A few coins, a timer, a hose that’s always a little too short.

In California, there’s actually a rule about this. According to the state’s Division of Measurement Standards, “in order to be entitled to free air and water at a California service station you must have first purchased fuel at the location.”

So in California, air is free. With purchase.

Things that used to come with the ticket

Air and water are the dramatic examples. But the pattern is everywhere.

In May 2008, BBC News reported that American Airlines would become “the first major US carrier to charge passengers to check in a first bag.” The fee was $15.

Before that, your bag came with your ticket. Now, on many airlines, it’s a line item.

Once a thing has a price tag, it’s very hard to take the tag off. I can’t think of many things that went from paid back to free.

What’s next?

My memo didn’t say what’s next. So here’s a short list of things that feel free today. I’m not predicting anything. Just noticing.

• Quiet.
• A view from a window.
• Darkness at night, enough to see stars.
• Time with no ads in it.

Some of these are already partly for sale, if you look. A quiet car on a train. A room with a view. A paid version of an app with no ads.

Companies do this all the time, too. A new product shows up for free. Free samples, free trials, the first one on the house. It’s marketing. They hand it out until we get used to it, and then the price shows up.

Related: A free sample is marketing

Which makes me wonder. Maybe Earth has been running the same campaign. Free water, free air, for a very long time. And once we’re used to it, the bill arrives.

Why it bothers me a little

I don’t think selling things is evil. Bottled water is useful when you’re traveling. Canned air is honestly a pretty funny business.

What bothers me is how fast “paid” becomes “normal.” The first time, it’s strange. The second time, it’s annoying. By the tenth time, you don’t notice.

That’s what my memo was about, I think. Noticing, while it’s still strange.

Related: My heating bill · Writing down every small cost

Today

Right now, the air outside my window is free.

It doesn’t come with a receipt.

Sources: CNBC, “Canadians are selling cans of fresh air to China” (Dec 15, 2015); CBC News, “Alberta company bottling air from Canadian Rockies and selling it worldwide” (Aug 27, 2015); BBC News, “Bag charge plan hits US airline” (May 22, 2008); California Department of Food and Agriculture, Division of Measurement Standards, consumer complaint page.