Back when Apple's iTunes started, I scoffed at the idea that you couldn't put it on more than a few devices. Apple would prevent you from doing that. I was glad I bought my music from Amazon, where it came as an MP3 file that didn't care about how many devices I used for the music I owned.

Then later, music services popped up and you could listen to anything you wanted, but you didn't actually own any of it. I've got children who love being able to listen to whatever they choose, but none of it is theirs. Instead, they get a playlist - usually not of their own choosing.

Software by subscription, car leases... recurring revenue is all the rage if you own a company. You'll own nothing and be happy. That WEF mantra is happening in many areas of life.

You might have heard the phrase that "they are turning us into a nation of renters." Ask yourself who is the better risk: a large institutional investor who buys 100 homes at a time to rent them, or 100 individual homeowners? This is why lenders are eager to finance investors; it's less work and provides more stability for the lender.

Dave Ramsey refers to leasing as "fleecing." As he sees it, it's setting your money on fire. As with anything you don't own, your ability to modify it to your satisfaction is limited. Whether it's a home you improve, a car you modify... when you don't own something, your incentive to make it better dissipates.

Everything becomes temporary. It's not that all subscriptions are bad. But I think as a rule, if it's a physical product, ownership should be the goal, and a service can be subscripted. Seeing more and more things in life as temporary is a dangerous turn...

The founders understood that ownership of property leads to the pursuit of happiness. That phrase referred to home ownership. The American Dream is tied directly to home ownership. Property taxes are increasingly seen as government rental income where you don't actually own your home under threat of confiscation if you fail to pay the tax (rent) for the home you supposedly own.

When someone produces a work with their hands, we respect that. A painting, furniture, car repair, a rocket that flies into space... all of that requires ownership.

When we slip into a drowsy acceptance of leasing and not owning important aspects of our lives, we lose the respect for the property leased. We decrease the potential to changing it and improving it. The pursuit of happiness slips away from us silently and often without notice.

We are, perhaps, less free. We certainly assist the investors who lease to us. We own nothing, and make them happy.

That just seems un-American.