Fact Check Me: Payment Is Not Permission

Somewhere along the way, we started confusing payment with entitlement.

We hear phrases like “the customer is always right” and assume it means whoever paid gets to decide how everything works. But that saying was always incomplete. The full idea was simple:

The customer is always right in matters of taste.

You like vanilla instead of chocolate? Fine.

You prefer blue over red? Great.

That’s taste.

What it never meant was that paying gives you authority over systems, contracts, or other people’s time.

Payment buys what was agreed to — nothing more.

A cleaning fee at an Airbnb is a perfect example. That fee covers a normal two-hour turnaround. It does not mean you get to trash the place and turn it into a full day of work for two people. That’s not misunderstanding — that’s arrogance. It’s treating someone else’s labor, time, and money as if they have no value.

The same logic shows up everywhere.

Just because you pay for your kid to do karate or ballet does not mean you’re entitled to make up classes, demand refresher sessions, or break contracts you willingly signed. You didn’t buy control — you bought participation under clear terms.

Try applying that logic to your own job.

What do you do for work?

Are your clients allowed to rewrite agreements after the fact?

Do people get to demand unpaid extra labor because they already paid once?

Does your contract magically disappear when someone is inconvenienced?

Of course not.

In the real world, extras cost extra.

Always have. Always will.

Hotels understand this perfectly. Trash a room and best-case scenario, you get a bill. Worst case, you’re banned or charged damages. Nobody calls that unfair. They call it accountability.

Payment does not erase responsibility.

It does not excuse disrespect.

And it does not turn other people’s boundaries into suggestions.

If you want more time, more access, more flexibility, or more forgiveness — that’s not a moral argument. That’s a pricing conversation.

The adult version of “the customer is always right” is simple:

You’re right about what you want.

Now let’s talk about what it costs.

Anything else isn’t customer service.

It’s entitlement — subsidized by other people’s labor.