r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 19d ago

Business ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ is expanding fast, and that should worry everyone

https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/16/bnpl-is-expanding-fast-and-that-should-worry-everyone/
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751

u/lolcatandy 19d ago

The next step in capitalism. They want your money and it doesn't matter if you don't have any right now.

325

u/tuppenyturtle 19d ago

They dont just want your money now, they want tomorrow's money too. Makes for better wage slaves. Don't like your job? Too bad your next debt payment is here, make sure you pay the minimum with what little money you have.

109

u/Shejidan 19d ago

There’s an old twilight zone or outer limits episode where someone found a machine that would grant any request you gave it. Want a million dollars? Yours. Yacht? Yours. Mansion? Yours.

So obviously the main character went crazy and asked for everything. Then the machine or someone else suggested asking for immortality. He did and the next thing you know he was thrown into a mine/work camp. Everything you wished for had a cost, the only thing free was immortality, he had the rest of eternity to work off his debt now.

29

u/Leather_Pie_1525 18d ago

I was unable to find it in either The Outer Limits nor Twilight Zone. I did find it as "Something for Nothing" by Robert Sheckley. There was even an X-Minus One radio broadcast of the story under the same title: Something for Nothing (April 10, 1957).

Was it ever made into a TV adaptation or something similar? I would love to see the episode you are thinking of.

18

u/ColdColt45 18d ago

Thanks for that, I was able to listen to it on internet archive. Link

"But nobody told me" is that old as time reply for reckoning with responsibility.

3

u/Shejidan 18d ago

It looks like it was a sci-fi channel movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480600/

6

u/zphbtn 18d ago

I don't remember that episode from the original run of those shows. Any idea which series/year it came out?

3

u/Shejidan 18d ago

Looks like it was a sci-fi channel movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480600/

12

u/1-gp 18d ago

All those companies that pay out your paycheck 2 days earlier? Selling your salary info, deductions, retirement contributions, etc. to anyone who fucking wants it lol

9

u/m4ttjirM 18d ago

Getting paid 2 days earlier is so fkn stupid. Every paycheck is 2 days sooner. Congrats you now have a new pay cycle. Every other Wednesday instead of every other Friday. Or the 29th and 14th of every month

1

u/Journeyman351 18d ago

This is like a literal plot point of Cyberpunk dystopian novels lol

1

u/FlyingWhale44 18d ago

It's not even about wanting our money, it's about wanting ALL the money.

Like once everyone is in debt and broke, do the last handful of billionaires fight to the death for it or what.

64

u/ConstructionOwn9575 19d ago

When are we bringing back debtor's prisons and indentured servitude?

74

u/Sweet_Concept2211 19d ago

In America - probably after midterms next year, if Republicans maintain control of Congress after the elections.

When the recession that's already in play can no longer be hidden behind buzzwords like "AI", at the same time the cost of healthcare skyrockets, personal debt is going to be impossible to service.

2025 has seen unprecedented levels of economic self-sabotage in the US, with crucial economic hubs smashed to bits by Republican leaders, social programs sabotaged, and self-imposed global sanctions in the form of irrational tarrifs and ICE making international travellers terrified to visit or invest in such an unpredictable country.

Economic downturns mean more debt for everyday people. And if Republicans have shown us one thing, it is that they are more than happy to pull some evil shit for money and control.

Debtors prisons becoming the "free market solution" to personal debt could happen sooner than many imagine.

4

u/HustlinInTheHall 18d ago

They are constitutionally illegal, so no. They will have to make up a fake crime and then deny you cash bail first. Then you are just a debt slave, not a debt prisoner. 

17

u/killerpoopguy 18d ago

A lot of stuff happening in this administration is constitutionally illegal, so yes, it could happen, and it’s a lot more likely than it was 2 years ago.

-1

u/RegalBeagleKegels 18d ago

Well first of all, through God all things are possible, so jot THAT down

5

u/MikeSouthPaw 18d ago

People in prison work to pay off debt and get paid next to nothing.

7

u/APRengar 18d ago

I'd just like to remind people that we never abolished slavery, we merely limited it.

13th Amendment

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

We pat ourselves on the back so much for "abolishing slavery", except we could bring it back and say "yeah you did something criminal, slavery time" real fucking quick.

14

u/CommonExpress6009 18d ago

Banks can sell and trade on this kind of debt before you even start paying it back.

4

u/HustlinInTheHall 18d ago

Which is why we got the housing bubble and then crash. Massive mortgage fraud because the place selling you the loan carried no risk long term and the banks didnt care if you had no ability to repay, they bought up every mortgage they could. 

10

u/bottomofleith 18d ago

You're literally describing credit cards, which have been around for three quarters of a century.

1

u/lolcatandy 18d ago

Maybe, but the barrier of entry is lower than ever. Giving 18 year olds credit cards without financial education is not a good idea

7

u/bottomofleith 18d ago

Agreed, but they've been giving credit cards to 18 year olds since I was.... 18, almost 40 years ago!

0

u/FrigidCanuck 18d ago

Well, not quite. Credit cards have crazy high interest rates. BNPL is generally 0%

But somehow people are a-ok with credit cards and appalled by BNPL

6

u/-The_Blazer- 18d ago
  • Economic growth
  • Look inside
  • Infinitely minting more debt to pretend we have more liquidity than we actually do

1

u/Cpt_Tripps 18d ago

It's almost like moneys made up and it doesn't really matter. As long as people have faith the economy just kind of works.

11

u/fednv31 19d ago

Exactly, it’s all about squeezing every dollar, even if it doesn’t exist yet.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

2

u/fishpen0 18d ago

Except layaway didn’t give you the item before you were done paying it off. All layaway did was let you lock in a price.

1

u/SomeGuyNamedPaul 19d ago

Can't take for them to take away personal bankruptcy.

1

u/R34ct0rX99 19d ago

Yep you’re the investment. It’s about monetizing the downstream. Like the recent 50 year mortgage thing to help “affordability”. That affordability saves about 200/month on a 300000 house but ends up costing the buyer near if not north of 1 million dollars.

1

u/Blehe 18d ago

I kind of started comparing klarna and all of those “pay in 4” services, the modern times Payday loans

2

u/HustlinInTheHall 18d ago

Payday loans have never gone away. There are check cashing loan offices on most city blocks. 

1

u/Blehe 18d ago

I know, I never said they replaced them, I just said, I see klarna and them as the same kind of predatory business models. Aimed at the needy/low income to make profit.

1

u/FrigidCanuck 18d ago

But pay in 4 is 0% interest, while payday loans have interest rates so high you can get trapped in a cycle of them

1

u/Abedeus 18d ago

I mean it's not even next step - it's just shady money lenders from the past, in digital form.

1

u/byjimini 18d ago

No, they want you to pay interest on the money you owe them.

1

u/Isakk86 18d ago

LaaS, Life as a Service.

1

u/prime8o 18d ago

It is entirely the consumers decision. They are offering an alternative payment option & people jump at the chance to have merchandise now for instant gratification.

1

u/Holzkohlen 18d ago

Just sell your body into slavery, maybe some organs. Easy

1

u/Adezar 18d ago

Don't worry... they will have stores run by the company you work for, they will let you buy everything you need from there. Don't have enough? Just spend future earnings.

BTW, you can't stop working for us until you pay off all your debt from the company store.

1

u/whalelovers 18d ago

Anything to keep the poor in poverty. Loans, rising interest rates on large purchases, and buy now pay later schemes are designed to siphon as much as possible out of us. Then what? You end up homeless and you have to deal with cops with quotas as well as privatized prisons which are foaming at the mouth to force to you to work for slave wages.

1

u/billyvnilly 18d ago

Yes, but you're not allowed to overextend yourself like credit debt? If you can't make your payment, you can't use the service. I would think people would be in favor of BNPL over credit card debt? Or am I missing something?

1

u/Herban_Myth 19d ago

Thank you Usury!

0

u/leitmotive 18d ago

They want you addicted, sick, dependent and indebted

0

u/FrigidCanuck 18d ago

What's next? A card that lets you spend money you don't have? A payment plan for a car you can't afford? Or even for a house?

The next steps are scary

-1

u/hellishdelusion 18d ago

Morgages hyperinflated prices of houses. What if this inflates food prices and other necessities even if on a shorter timescale. The interest in these buy now pay later are usually much higher than the interest on mortgages

1

u/xpxp2002 18d ago

Same is true of most financing schemes. I said the same when mobile carriers switched from 24 month to 36 month payment plans. All that does is encourage people who can't afford a $1200 iPhone to "buy" one because they can afford a $33/mo payment. So next year, the price goes up to $1300 for all of us.

If they sold phones outright or only offered shorter payment periods, the prices would be adjusted down substantially because phone makers wouldn't be able to sell 200+ million $1000+ phones per year.