Question: What willrnpeople need to give up? 

Ernst Weizsäcker: There is indeed quite a difference between just ownership and use ofrnthe goods I own, and services.  Forrninstances, my family is part of a car-sharing arrangement.  Whenever we need a car, we get it atrnthe relatively low price and we don’t have the permanent costs for therncar.  But we always have access torncar-like mobility.  But if... forrninstance, my daughter’s family, they own any car and they use cars only whenrnthey really need it. And otherwise use bicycles and walking and, I don’t knowrnwhat.  Telephones.  But then we are living in a privilegedrnsmall town of 25,000 inhabitants in Germany, so there it’s easier.  But even in New York with publicrntransport, you can do a lot of things without a car, but with the possibilityrnof having access to a car.  That, Irnbelieve is one example.   

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