Pot, porn, and burritos are part of an ever-growing temptation economy. What do we do about it?
It’s never a good sign when a phrase is composed of brands. Take the elocution “You can now Klarna your DoorDash Chipotle.” Chipotle, most readers will know, is a popular fast-casual burrito place; DoorDash is a food delivery service. “Klarna” is the verbified form of a “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) service that allows users to delay paying for their purchases without (initially) any interest.
The idea of Klarna-ing of your DoorDash Chipotle raised some eyebrows in late March, when the BNPL provider and food delivery firm announced a partnership. Paying for someone to deliver a burrito is already silly; dividing that payment up into four easy installments is absurd.
But it’s not just burritos that we’re BNPL-ing. Loan values rose from $2 billion in 2019 to $24.2 billion in 2021; as of 2023, 1 in 5 Americans had used a BNPL service. According to a recent Billboard analysis, 60 percent of Coachella music festival attendees BNPL’ed their tickets. “Are we all living beyond our means now?” Claire Lampen recently asked in The Cut. The answer seems to be yes.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Dispatch (paywall)
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Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal
Photo by Sean Gladwell/Getty Images
