The "free" factor
The first thing I learned in economics was the driving force of scarcity. The second thing: there's no such thing as a free lunch. So when did all of a sudden the consumer masses expect so much for so little?I remember being blown away by the fact that I could send and receive email for FREE! I thought "The USPS is really gonna take a hit from this!...apparently it has, since the price of stamps has increased about 3 times in less than 8 years. But this notion of getting something [incredibly useful] for nothing hasn't fazed the masses. If anything, we've been spoiled! Within the last year, Hotmail and Yahoo! have upped their inbox space by leaps and bounds--that was probably in response to the introduction of Gmail (and you know them Google peeps do everything big).
And then there was Napster.... That's all I'm gonna say about that to avoid incriminating...well, anybody. :o) But free music files on the Internet created a frenzy in the recording industry because unlike email services, music was NEVER meant to be distributed for free. Before this, the best that could be done was recording a favorite song off of the radio [and praying that you could get through the whole track without the DJ talking]. LOL
Now there are entire programs and software packages available...for FREE. The peer-to-peer networking phenomenon probably has Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud and the rest of yester-generation's great thinkers turning over their graves! Why would any one human being invest commodies such as time and effort to make available to otherwise unrelated, anonymous individuals, resources that they posess with no [tangible] return on their investments?? Just for the joy of making the world a better [i.e. "freer"] place?
Nah, couldn't be...
posted by peculiar VIrtue @ 11:17 AM
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You know what to do... just keep it clean
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