It really is free, the delivery, no

People constantly whine at me that the newspaper I run is not free to read online. I also see this whine about other media outlets.

Here is the reality that will cause cognitive dissonance and disconnect in the vast majority of people reading this. Any replies are gonna hilarious.

In other words, splodey heads inbound. 

The information you seek is free. Yes it is. It's 100% free. YOU, yes you, just have to go and get it.

If you want it free, you have to get it all on your own. No help from anyone at all. No resources you do not bring. No resources you did not create from the raw materials you harvested, mined, whatever and shaped into what you need.

This includes the clothes you wear. Yeppers. Someone, not you, had to make those clothes from the raw materials like plant fiber or animal skin.

Aye, there's the rub! No, a little lower. Lower. Lower.

Lemme 'splain this slightly differently. This will also create more splodey heads

IT IS FREE

The water coming through your pipes, that you buy in a store, the electricity powering your domicile, devices and yes, even the fuel that powers whatever you use to get around, all that is free.

Yes. It is. Free. Free. Free. Free.

George, siddown and keep reading.

What you are paying for is the gathering, sorting, storage, delivery and other treatments to and for the things you buy. 

These processes involve a live human being at various points in the supply chain. 

This is what you are paying for, the peoples' work.

You are NOT paying for the whatever it is, unless you hire someone to work. Then, yeah, you are paying for labor.

SUPPLY LINE

Keep up, George. This is not as complicated as you think, or not think as the case may be. Let's follow a supply line.

That electricity is free. It is just electrons. Electrons are everywhere. Your body has more electrons than any thing else down to the atomic level. Lightning and static electricity are electrons.

So why do you get a power bill?

You have to pay for everything that goes into making those electrons flow through the wires. THAT is what you pay for.

An astonishingly short list of what you pay for is:

1. The transmission wires.
2. The poles holding the wires.
3. The pipes for underground wires.
4. Everything at the generating plant.
5. Salaries for people to keep everything working.

This is nowhere near comprehensive. I don't have the inclination to list everything nor are you willing to read an entire dictionary's worth of writing to see that whole list.

SALARY

Splodey head #3 - Salary, wages, pay and even profit.

Eventually everything you are paying for comes down to a salary, wages or profit for someone. In other words, money in someone's pocket. To briefly dip into the evils of Maths, money is the lowest common denominator.

George, you must pay Fred to get and make the things you want to exist.

This is the circle of economics.

Someone is now screaming I am an idiot and have no idea what I am talking about. Likely true.

Prove me wrong.

SPEARMINT

Try this experiment, or spearmint as George says.

Go completely off grid. 100%. 

Do not rely on ANYONE except yourself for everything you need. 

Whatever you think you need, gather the materials yourself and make it.

You can't do it. No. You can't.

Need clothes? Harvest plant fibers and process them. Hunt animals and tan the leather. Each animal, except buffalo and many reptiles, has exactly enough brains to brain-tan the hide. Betcha didn't know that.

Think you need electricity? Build your own generator. Mine the copper and iron ores. Smelt the metals. Cast and draw the parts. Rig the generator to run with flowing water from a creek or a boiler. 

You can exist completely isolated. This is literally possible. It is literally done in the world today.

See Sentinel Island. See the Japanese WWII soldier discovered in islands decades after the war. See the Russian family in Siberia

You can't do what they did and are doing.

Now, show me anything you think is not free, except for labor. I will prove you wrong. 

Workers got bills, yo.

THAT NEWSPAPER

Yeah, the newspaper ain't free to read online.

The information is free.

Another VERY short list of what you pay for with your subscription is:

• Very f'dangin' little profit
• The monthly website fees
• The reporter salaries for gathering the news
• The salaries behind the people doing the website work
• The computers needed to generate the news and transmit it to the webhosting company
• And so on

Eventually all this runs right back to giving another human money to do the work needed to get the information to you.

Everything else is free.

Unless you are slave, in which case your labor is free and your life is forfeit for not working. But that's another Constitution blog, 'cause slavery is still legal in the United States. Yes, huhn. Look it up.

We charge for newspaper access because we have to pay for everything that goes into getting the information to you. The information? Absolutely free. Yer welcome.