Question: What will people need to give up? 

Ernst Weizsäcker: There is indeed quite a difference between just ownership and use of the goods I own, and services.  For instances, my family is part of a car-sharing arrangement.  Whenever we need a car, we get it at the relatively low price and we don’t have the permanent costs for the car.  But we always have access to car-like mobility.  But if... for instance, my daughter’s family, they own any car and they use cars only when they really need it. And otherwise use bicycles and walking and, I don’t know what.  Telephones.  But then we are living in a privileged small town of 25,000 inhabitants in Germany, so there it’s easier.  But even in New York with public transport, you can do a lot of things without a car, but with the possibility of having access to a car.  That, I believe is one example.   

The same holds in a sense for big copying machines, which typically are leased, not bought.  That’s fine.  And I can imagine this principle going further.  For instance, I could imagine that aluminum will not be sold any longer in the future, but leased and returned after use.  So, for instance, the airplane manufacturers could rent the aluminum they need and when the lifetime of the airplane is over, it will be returned.  And then, of course, they all have a strong interest in doing the optimal mix alloys of the metal so that the reuse is without any problem.  So, access to aluminum is a very good thing, but this does not automatically mean ownership.  Why do I need to own aluminum?