[hansor]

Zero! Monthly subscriptions are waste of money, and whole SaaS is IMHO wrong step in human evolution. I prefer to have my stuff for free or own stuff.

My free stack:

- Comms: Free "work" phone with unlimited everything, and free unlimited LTE/5G "work" modem.

- Music: Free Tidal from work + my own ripped MP3s.

- Software hacking: free virtual machines running at Oracle Cloud(and some services at IBM cloud).

- IDE: IntelliJ Community Edition and NetBeans 12

Only real monthly "subscription" is:

- 15$ monthly "membership fee" for my political party.

[thih9]

Getting something free from work technically counts; at the same time I guess you’re earning less or missing out on other perks (other jobs might offer different perks or higher salary); the SAAS company still gets paid by your employer, so you might be still indirectly supporting them.

[ecedeno]

Out of all the things you mentioned, a political party membership is the only one I wouldn't pay for. May I ask what value you get out of being a paid member?

[hansor]

>what value you get out of being a paid member?

- More money from fees = better political campaigns = more voters = larger representation in Parliament/Congress = ability to change the Law(country, county or City wide). This is very rewarding - and much better than just moaning about politicians!

- Large "instant" social network of people who shares the same values as you do! (We have a lot of internal messaging tools and forums.)

- There is a lot of members who are lawyers, doctors, accountants, barbers etc. - so its easy to get some occasional help for free or with discount.

- You can literally change the world. For example you start some loose discussion on Discord or Slack let's say about homeless people: and half year later, after various meetings and internal votes our senators/MPs can actually make such proposal to Parliment/Congress. It is VERY rewarding.

- A lot of introverts inside of party, as it attracts mostly high IQ people, so it is possible to find company to play chess, computers games, board games or real life sports etc.

- You can actually TALK to politicians that you see in TV. Or have beer with them.

- You can argue, or give your own ideas about something - at it WILL be taken in account(internal voting even at lowest levels).

- You can say: "At least I tried to DO something!"

[ecedeno]

I take it back. That sounds worth it.

May I ask what the country is? I am guessing that is somewhere in Northern Europe.

[hansor]

Central/Northern Europe. One of post soviet states with deep distrust towards political parties...

[Luckystrik3]

The "free stack" you are using is partly only free because someone else is paying for it (your employer/IBM...) - so they actually are subscriptions in my eyes. (slightly off topic: Germany tax authorities would see it similarly: The benefits you get from work could be called "monetary benefits" in Germany and the value added to your income for taxing purposes.)