The phrase has also been used by critics of the subscription business model , and software as a service. Auken had previously written in about a hackathon at the WEF that proposed "FridgeFlix", a startup that would allow users to lease all of their household appliances from a provider that would also service and upgrade these appliances.
The proposed company would reduce the risk of residents incurring costly repairs and would work with energy suppliers to reduce power consumption of appliances. In , Auken published an essay originally titled "Welcome to I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better", [ 4 ] later retitled "Here's how life could change in my city by the year ", on the WEF's official web site. It described life in an unnamed city in which the narrator does not own a car, a house, any appliances, or any clothes, and instead relies on shared services for all of his daily needs.
Auken later added an author's note to the story responding to critics, stating that it is not her "utopia or dream of the future", and that she intended for the essay to start discussions about technological development. The WEF published an article and a video [ 6 ] in based in part on Auken's essay. Social media users shared a frame from the video, depicting an unidentified man smiling with a digital on-screen graphic reading "You'll own nothing. And you'll be happy" superimposed, adding criticism of Auken's views.
The WEF clarified that it has no stated goal to have individuals "own nothing and be happy", and that its Agenda framework includes individual ownership and control over private property.
In , a writer for The Independent described Auken's essay as being in line with the principles of the sharing economy , noting that the United Kingdom already had online services to allow users to share property, storage space, cars, designer apparel, tools, and other expensive items. A cofounder of Fat Llama, a rental web site, observed that people who buy expensive items like DSLR cameras and drones opt for more expensive, higher-end models so that they can rent them out to recoup their costs.
