Freeconomics

It seems the hippies are finally seeing their dream come to fruition. The idea of free has become an actual business model. So now you can get all the free love you desire as long as you pay for the sex.

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.

The Greek philosopher Zeno wrestled with this concept in a slightly different context. In Zeno's dichotomy paradox, you run toward a wall. As you run, you halve the distance to the wall, then halve it again, and so on. But if you continue to subdivide space forever, how can you ever actually reach the wall? (The answer is that you can't: Once you're within a few nanometers, atomic repulsion forces become too strong for you to get any closer.)

In economics, the parallel is this: If the unitary cost of technology ('per megabyte' or 'per megabit per second' or 'per thousand floating-point operations per second') is halving every 18 months, when does it come close enough to zero to say that you've arrived and can safely round down to nothing? The answer: almost always sooner than you think.

A fascinating article that was well worth the read as I sat here unable to sleep due to the use of heavy machinery right outside my house that is causing a rattle in my chest as well as all the windows. All free. Rather than having to pay for coffee, energy drinks or cocaine to stay awake when I should be sleeping the company laying a new sewer line in front of our house is giving away insomnia for absolutely free.

The article outlines several different models of free stuff, how it's free, and to whom it is free. We do get quite a bit for free. I also give quite a bit away for free. I've given away free literature, free art, free advice, even free buttons. Sometimes it costs me money to give things away for free. Sometimes it doesn't. I also get a lot of free stuff. I enjoy some of it and some of it I don't. Like this blog. The service is free to those who post here. We don't try to capitalize on your visits through advertising (except when I tell people to buy my campaign trinkets, but you can download my book for free).

And I can't wait until prostitution adopts the freeconomics model. Free services for your average users or you can upgrade to a premium pay account. Which I think could really work for the industry. Free blow jobs from an old toothless hooker or pay a premium for anal with a Brazilian beauty. Brilliant!

The creepy side of free; People have gone from being viewed as clients (we need to win their business) to being viewed as consumers (we need to make them spend money) to being viewed as commodities (we want to sell them to a client). Not that we don't benefit from it. As long as you don't mind feeling like a whore. Which I'm cool with. The way I screw with my online information, I'm like one of those tranny whores who passes himself off as a woman and gives discount blow jobs more for the thrill of it than the actual money. Not that I'm actually that. It's just a metaphor. Everyone knows X is the Swede Transvestite. I'm Franco-Polish-Viking. I think that means I'll fuck anything that moves and then rob them if they don't perform to my standards.

Where was I? Oh yeah, free whores. People as a commodity. The indentured servitude that got so many people into this country in the first place has returned. We've come full circle. We're all easy riders.

But it begs the question; Does this mean bands can no longer sell out? I mean if they just give it all away in exchange for legions of fans who turn around and throw money at them even though they don't have to, that isn't really selling out. So are Radiohead a bunch of hand outs? Or maybe we should say, "Radiohead used to be cool until they gave out."

FYI: I've never liked Radiohead. I've never purchased, pirated, or freely downloaded any of their media. Not that I dislike Radiohead, I just have no interest in them. None. Though I bet they would be better to sleep to than jack hammers, back hoes, and the dragging of concrete and pipes.