But who can decently believe that one can consume for free? Generations Y and Z perhaps because of an incomplete economic base, but not beyond that circle..
We must assume that in the business world at least, everything has a cost and that this cost must be paid by someone: the customer, a sponsor, a patron, advertising or… the taxpayer!
This notion of ‘free’ is disturbing because it gives the impression that people or companies are giving something to others for nothing in return, which is of course false, naive or shows a sense of cynical opportunism.
We prefer the notion that ‘if I don’t pay, others do it for me’ as these underlines at least a minimal awareness of business ethics.
The Anglo-Saxons like to use the expression “no free lunch” which shows quite clearly that everything consumed is paid for directly or indirectly.
Giving the illusion that a service or product is free is harmful because it devalues the service or product. In addition, it can be the source of at least three problems:
• Only the most agile (the cheekiest or the most ill-educated) get benefits that are paid for by others.
• The product offered has, in marketing terms, no value except emotional to the recipient. This is more about gifts than products.
• The race to the bottom in terms of the market favours social dumping at the very least for production and for the transport sector.
Many companies that use the codes “free of charge” are in fact working against the market and against healthy competition. In the end, it is always the honest customers and employees of these companies who suffer the consequences.
To put it another way, the same people who criticise low wages and job insecurity are the same people who are keen to use free services: that is not even close to being inconsistent…
Let the markets evolve, so be it. That the principle of free services is becoming commonplace is a real problem for society, because one day, willingly or not, we are the “butt of the joke” for someone else. Is this the economy in which we want to evolve?
Good luck, good thoughts, and good reading.