Sonya Joseph grew up on a tree-lined street in Brooklyn. <\/p>\n
\u201cAround the block we had nice small mom and pop stores that I would frequent. I knew my neighbors and we all pretty much went to school together. So it was pretty communal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Joseph\u2019s parents owned their home. She figured one day she\u2019d own a home, too. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a homeowner can provide me with a sense of peace of mind and security and a sense of community that I feel like I deeply desire,\u201d said Joseph, now a 34-year-old community organizer living in Washington, D.C. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of the dream that was sold to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph was close to purchasing a home through a first-time homebuyer program. But the organization looked through her bank statements and discovered an ongoing balance of about $600, charged to buy now, pay later programs. She\u2019s used them to buy furniture, groceries, and toiletries. And she said lately, it\u2019s starting to feel like everything in her life is on a payment plan \u2014 like her phone, which costs $26 a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only I don\u2019t fully own the phone, but by the time I do own the phone I probably need to get a new phone,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m in a lifetime subscription for the phone ownership if that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lifetime subscription for ownership is becoming a hallmark of middle class life. You go into debt to buy a $60,000 car only to learn you have to pay to use its remote start feature. You turn on your PlayStation to play a game you don\u2019t own, just purchased a license to access. And that\u2019s showing up in the numbers. Household debt is historically high<\/a> for everything from credit card balances to auto loans. Combine that with the subscription economy and it seems like people don\u2019t outright own much anymore.<\/p>\n The idea of financing life this way seems like a 21st century problem, but it goes way back.<\/p>\n \u201cPicture it: The Roaring \u201820s. It\u2019s a great moment of cars and phonographs and vacuum cleaners and refrigerators and all the wonders of the electrical age,\u201d said Louis Hyman, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n As in, it\u2019s all very much reserved for the rich. That is, until installment credit comes along, a sort of precursor to the credit card. Suddenly your average Joe could afford a washing machine or even a car.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly in the 1920s and \u201830s, installment credit was seen as a great leveler, so that ordinary folks had access to expensive things,\u201d said Hyman.<\/p>\n