History Main / PayingForAir

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bill_02.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Breathing on the bill first and foremost [[note]]even though WaterIsAir here[[/note]].]]

->''Was Earthside once and heard expression 'Free as air.' This air isn't free, you pay for every breath.''
-->--'''Mannie Garcia''', ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''

In RealLife, you have to pay for many things that let you survive (assuming you're a normal human being), which include water, food, shelter, and more (again, may depend on the person). That said, there's one thing no-one asks you to pay for: air. Because you breathe it automatically and there's no easy way to count how many breaths you've taken over a particular day. Plus trees take carbon dioxide out of your breaths and exchange it back for oxygen, creating the likely only renewable resource that uses humans.

However, in fiction, someone may force you to pay for air. This can be done to show a really CorruptCorporateExecutive or that CapitalismIsBad. This can also happen if the world (or its ecology) is ravaged in the future and there's no way to get oxygen from trees, resulting in it becoming a finite/fully dependent on humans resource. An occasional cause may be space travel as well, if oxygen has to be generated. This can apply to WaterIsAir settings as well. It may come in bottles, as a tax, or in some other form. Can't pay and you're screwed, likely resulting in suffocation within minutes, or at least accruing insurmountable debt.

In more technical terms, this is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodification commodification]] of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good_(economics) public goods]] taken to the extreme.

Do not confuse this with paying for airtime, which is what [[ViewersLikeYou most smaller donor contributions to publicly-funded media outlets like PBS]] are earmarked for.
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!!Examples:

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'':
** The moon in 23rd century bills for air as it would for heat and electricity. One minor villain was killed because he could not pay his bill, and the air was simply turned off. Luna-1 residents even have a saying with regards to this: "A smart man can beat the law, but only a fool bucks the Oxygen Board."
** In another story, Mega-City-One issued a one-time "clean air tax" to cover the losses of altering some city-block numbers (and the stupidity that ensued).
** [[TheCaligula Judge Cal]] issues a fresh air tax during his reign as Chief Judge among his various other insane laws.
* ''[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]]'':
** One comic had Scrooge go to two neighboring worlds (each an opposite PlanetOfHats) with one devoted to wasteful ConspicuousConsumption (like taking a shopping trip, filling up the cart, and leaving the full cart behind), and the other where everyone was obsessed with saving and making money to the extent of having to pay for breathing. Naturally, Scrooge is happy on the second planet only up until he finds out he has to pay for just about everything he does.
** One Donald Duck comic centers around a golden viking helmet that will allegedly give whoever owns it authority to rule North America. When Donald succumbs to the temptation, he decrees that he'll allow everyone to keep living their lives exactly like they were before, except that he'll charge people for air.

[[AC:Films - Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'': In the city of Thneedville, inhabitants have to buy air in bottles due to the lack of trees, until they come back and Aloysius O'Hare is overthrown near the end.

[[AC:Films - Live-Action]]
* Implied in ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'': the villainous President Skroob of Planet Spaceball has "squandered their precious atmosphere," making it difficult to breathe unassisted on the surface of planet Spaceball. Though he vigorous denies that there's an air shortage, President Skroob keeps a drawer of Perri-Air canned, sparkling, salt-free air in his desk for relief.
* ''Film/TotalRecall'': This is how the BigBad Cohaagen stays in charge of the planet Mars. He owns all the oxygen in the colonies, which basically gives him absolute power (it's implied Earth won't stop him because he also controls a valuable mineral). His plot is to destroy a Martian machine that can generate air for the whole planet.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Episode "Oxygen", the unnamed corporation that controls the space station Chasm Forge has passed rules limiting the oxygen on-board to employee's personal spacesuits. When the TARDIS transports an excess of oxygen to the station, Chasm Forge's A.I. complains that the spare oxygen wasn't authorised by corporate and vents it into space to "keep prices competitive".
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "Fathers and Sons", Lister quits his position at the Jupiter Mining Corporation. The ship's new computer, Pree, decides that he has now forfeited his "oxygen allowance" and removes all the air from his quarters to force him out of the ship.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', Loonies have to pay for the oxygen they breathe, since, on the Moon, it is produced by devoted entities. New incomers will be loaned money for paying for air but nothing else.
* In ''Literature/TheRaggedTrouseredPhilanthropists'', one character remarks that if it were possible to do so, the entrepreneurial capitalist classes would appropriate the air to themselves and turn it into a source of profit, charging people to breathe it, and you would daily see people suffocating to death for want of the price of air to breathe. And that those used to paying rent to landlords for homes to live in would see this as ''normal''.
* In the ''Literature/GeronimoStilton'' book ''A Fabumouse Vacation for Geronimo'', Geronimo ends up in a very badly managed hotel that haves absurdly high prices for everything. One of the extra stuff you have to pay for is the air you breathe while staying inside (30 euros per day, plus 10 more [[UpToEleven if you want the oxygen too]]).

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* "All in My Head" by Music/HoboJohnson criticizes the commercialization of everything:
--> "They sell water, soon enough they'll sell air, they sell dirt and no one even cares"
* Music/MitchBenn's "Budget Air", about how they make up for the cheapness of the ticket with all the hidden fees:
-->They charge me just for charging me, though why I cannot tell,\\
I'm scared to breathe the air in case they charge for that as well.

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* Variation: A duo of ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strips depicts a contractor named Carl at the company, being told that their air is for their actual employees only and rather than use it, he needs to supply his own. Next thing, he has a mobile air tank hooked up to his mouth and can't say anything while Wally complains, "He's using our light!" The next strip continues this state of affairs, where (while he tries to argue from behind the air mask) the PointyHairedBoss says that he's still using their ''gravity'' and wonders if he could hover.
* One ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' storyline had Peter running an "air factory" and charging the other characters for using it.

[[AC:{{Roleplay}}]]
* In ''Roleplay/AShockToTheSystemRoleplay,'' Military ships have free air provided to colonists via an onboard ecosystem, but MegaCorp ships tax passengers for it.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}} Adventure'' campaign, the planet Aramis has no breathable atmosphere and the inhabitants of the underground city of Leedor must pay a 10 credit per day fee to the government to cover the cost of the city's artificially generated air.
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' adventure path ''Fly Free or Die'' the player characters land in the drow city of Nightarch, on the airless planet Apostae, and immediately upon leaving their ship they get a message from Nightarch Air and Water billing them for air at a rate of 1 credit per day.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In Rapture of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', run under Objectivism under its owner Andrew Ryan, even air has to be paid for. Ryan taunts the player by telling how he's a thief for not paying for the air he breathes while, beforehand, Julie Langford planned to invest into the air business, as Fontaine did.
* In ''VideoGame/HardspaceShipbreaker'', oxygen refills midshift cost money, thus adding to your debt. At the smallest tank size, you'll have to buy twice to get through a 15 minute shift. Once your tank is upgraded enough, it can last an entire shift without a refill, unless you crack/break your helmet.
* ''VideoGame/StarControl:'' The Druuge species run themselves as a gigantic {{Megacorp}} called the Crimson Corporation, with everything the Druuge own being company property... including the oxygen on their planets. As a result, getting fired from it inevitably ends in execution as the unfortunate in question ends up "stealing company property" by merely breathing. At least the retirement packages include (reduced) oxygen intakes.
* One of the new food items in ''VideoGame/NeoTheWorldEndsWithYou'' is a tin can full of high-quality air. It's one of the best ways to increase your Style stat but somehow it still contains calories like normal food.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* ''WebVideo/{{Jreg}}'': "Centricide 4.5: Ancapistan" has the Capitalists mention that in the episode's titular city, they pay 12 bucks each breath of air, but everyone's a billionaire (except for the cripplingly poor).
* In the "Water" episode of ''WebVideo/YouKnowWhatsBullshit'', the Bullshit Man jokes that if the Coca-Cola company could, they would actually attempt to sell air, after filling it with chemicals, as part of a jab at their Dasani brand of water.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Truth or Cosmoquences", Cosmo, pretending to be rich to impress his old high school classmates, claims to have invented oxygen, which means he's paid a quarter every time someone inhales.
* At the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/PorkyPigsFeat'', we see Porky's hotel bill list a number of "luxuries", one of which is "Air for breathing".
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotAndMonster'': In one episode, the titular duo forgets to pay taxes, with one of them being a tax for oxygen.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In the episode "Squid on Strike," Mr. Krabs makes his employees reimburse him for "goofing off," (pictured above) which includes activities as simple as breathing. Squidward finds it so unfair that he starts a workers' strike.
* An segment of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' (Fit For a King) has Garfield reading a fairy tale called ''The Royal Appetite'' where an obese king played by Jon is beloved by his subjects because another king gifts the king with his weight in gold (literally, King Jon is on one end of a scale while the gold is piled on the other end) so King Jon doesn't need to tax his subjects. One of his servants, the Duke of Blurp wants the throne and plans on taxing the citizens for everything including breathing air.
* In "Clean Air!" from ''WesternAnimation/SidTheScienceKid'', Sid pretends to be a slick-talking salesman offering bottles of clean air for one million dollars each. Gerald offers to buy one, Gabriela to buy two, but they are eventually lured away by May, who points out that they can just plant trees.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', "Mega Leech", the mayor has plans to build Project Oxygen, a supposedly eco-friendly facility to purify polluted air and sell it back in bottles. But, as is pointed out by some protesters, to do so they will demolish a park (full of trees, nature's air filters) and the bottles will become more plastic waste.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* TruthInTelevision in polluted China, as [[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/world/asia/china-air-restaurant-clean-charge.html a restaurant gives an additional 15 cent fee for fresh air]] and [[https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2050086/chinas-smog-hit-residents-willing-pay-over-us30-bottled-fresh-air Chinese people are willing to pay up to 30$ for bottled fresh air]].
* In a downplayed example, some high-end hotels in high-altitude Peruvian cities like Cusco offer the option to have oxygen pumped into one's hotel room to ease the effects of altitude sickness. These enriched-oxygen rooms typically run an extra $50 a night. [[https://www.belmond.com/hotels/south-america/peru/cusco/belmond-hotel-monasterio/ Hotel Monasterio]] is one such example that advertises the service on their website.
* ''Compressed'' air and oxygen - used heavily for medical and research purposes, underwater work and recreation, high altitude activities, or deep mining operations - certainly isn't free, due to the expense of bottling, storing and shipping it. The rapid consumption of oxygen for ventilators due to the coronavirus outbreak has raised concerns about a bottled-oxygen shortage and possible price gouging.
* Technically, anytime you buy manufactured goods you're doing this. Factories incorporate technologies to reduce their pollution output, such as scrubbers on the exhaust towers. All that equipment has to be paid for ''somehow'', which means the cost is factored into the price of the products. Unless of course your stuff is made somewhere that's less environmentally conscious, like China.
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* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', episode, ''Truth or Cosmoquences'', Cosmo pretending to be rich to impress his old high school classmates, claims to have invented oxygen, which means he's paid a quarter every time someone inhales.

** One comic had himScrooge go to two neighboring worlds (each an opposite PlanetOfHats) with one devoted to wasteful ConspicuousConsumption (like taking a shopping trip, filling up the cart, and leaving the full cart behind), and the other where everyone was obsessed with saving and making money to the extent of having to pay for breathing. Naturally, Scrooge is happy on the second planet only up until he finds out he has to pay for just about everything he does.

* One ''[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]]'' comic had him go to two neighboring worlds (each an opposite PlanetOfHats) with one devoted to wasteful ConspicuousConsumption (like taking a shopping trip, filling up the cart, and leaving the full cart behind), and the other where everyone was obsessed with saving and making money to the extent of having to pay for breathing. Naturally, Scrooge is happy on the second planet only up until he finds out he has to pay for just about everything he does.

** [[The Caligula Judge Cal]] issues a fresh air tax during his reign as Chief Judge among his various other insane laws.

** The moon in 23rd century bills for air as it would for heat and electricity. One minor villain was killed because he could not pay his bill, and the air was simply turned off.

[[AC:Newspaper Comics]]

* Variation: A duo of ''Dilbert'' strips depicts a contractor named Carl at the company, being told that their air is for their actual employees only and rather than use it, he needs to supply his own. Next thing, he has a mobile air tank hooked up to his mouth and can't say anything while Wally complains, "He's using our light!" The next strip continues this state of affairs, where (while he tries to argue from behind the air mask) the PointyHairedBoss says that he's still using their ''gravity'' and wonders if he could hover.

However, in fiction, someone may force you to pay for air. This can be done to show a really CorruptCorporateExecutive or that CapitalismIsBad. This can also happen if the world (or it's ecology) is ravaged in the future and there's no way to get oxygen from trees, resulting in it becoming a finite/fully dependent on humans resource. An occasional cause may be space travel as well, if oxygen has to be generated. This can apply to WaterIsAir settings as well. It may come in bottles, as a tax, or in some other form. Can't pay and you're screwed, likely resulting in suffocation within minutes, or at least accruing insurmountable debt.

* Variation: A duo of ''Dilbert'' strips depicts a contractor named Carl at the company, being told that their air is for customers only and rather than use it, he needs to supply his own. Next thing, he has a mobile air tank hooked up to his mouth and can't say anything while Wally complains, "He's using our light!" The next strip continues this state of affairs, where (while he tries to argue from behind the air mask) the PointyHairedBoss says that he's still using their ''gravity'' and wonders if he could hover.

* Variation: A duo of ''Dilbert'' strips depicts a contractor named Carl at the company, being told that their air is for customers only and rather than use it, he needs to supply his own. Next thing, he has a mobile air tank hooked up to his mouth and can't say anything while Wally complains, "He's using our light!" The next strip continues this state of affairs, where the PointyHairedBoss says that he's still using their ''gravity'' and wonders if he could hover.

However, in fiction, someone may force you to pay for air. This can be done to show a really CorruptCorporateExecutive or that CapitalismIsBad. This can also happen if the world (or it's ecology) is ravaged in the future and there's no way to get oxygen from trees, resulting in it becoming a finite/fully dependent on humans resource. An occasional cause may be space travel as well, if oxygen has to be generated. This can apply to WaterIsAir settings as well. It may come in bottles, as a tax, or in some other form. Can't pay and you're screwed, likely resulting in suffocation within minutes.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Episode "Oxygen", the unnamed corporation that controls the space station Chasm Forge has passed rules limiting the oxygen on-board to employee's personal spacesuits, and when the TARDIS transports an excess of oxygen to the station, its AI immediately vents all of it into space to "keep prices competitive".

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Cosmo claims to have invented oxygen, which means he's entitled to royalties every time someone inhales.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In the episode "Squid on Strike," Mr. Krabs makes his employees reimburse him for "goofing off," which includes activities as simple as breathing. Squidward finds it so unfair that he starts a workers' strike.

* In Rapture of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', run under Objectivism under its owner Andrew Ryan, even air has to be paid for. Ryan taunts the player by telling how he's a thief for not paying for the air he breathes while, beforehand, Julie Langdon planned to invest into the air business, as Fontaine did.

TLP Note: This is something that mainly came out of inspiration. I think it's an interesting idea, though. Administrivia/RollingUpdates.
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Indexes: CapitalismIsBad, ThisIndexBlows