Is Free Really Free? by Tom

Is Free Really Free? by Tom - August 2013 Scholarship Essay

In my writing class, a question was posed, "Is free really free?" It was a thought provoking question and I really had to think about it. Looking back on it, this was really the most interesting lesson I learned in a class after pondering on the question and brainstorming with others. “Sometimes the things which are free are the ones that cost the most” is a well-known and simple saying with a deep meaning behind it. A meaning that is becoming increasingly more important in the modern consumer driven world, but held just as true in the days passed. Good products and services cost good money, and consequently the products and services which seem like a good value today, may end up costing you in the future. The idea of cost includes more than just monetary cost; it encompasses such concepts as time and energy spent. Your time and energy can be exchanged for money; this is basically the definition of doing a job. Once you receive your paycheck, you can use it to purchase the time and energy of others, in the form of goods and services. Due to the limitations of our paychecks, we are sometimes tempted to get some things for free or for a reduced price.
One way to obtain something for free is to simply steal it. This is in most cases illegal, and brings with it all the consequences of breaking the law, jail time, and high fines included. Let’s look at a hypothetical situation where someone, whom we’ll call Person A, steals a candy bar from a gas station, and subsequently gets caught. Person A now has to face the embarrassment of dealing with the store clerk who caught him, the police officer who came to investigate, and the stigma from his friends and family, who now see him as a crook. The cut goes so much deeper, however. Person A now has to pay a fine of several hundred dollars for committing a crime. He also has to waste his time for court visits, and has his personal space violated and his freedom limited by his probation officer. Person A will now miss many life opportunities due to the fact that he is registered as a criminal. Thus, something free has ended up being quite expensive for Person A. Now, in reality, stealing a candy bar would probably not bring all these consequences to a first time offender, but is an excellent example to illustrate the point of this essay.
Another way a person may experience this quote is by buying goods or services that are cheap because of their poor quality. Let’s take a look at what happened to Person B. He had a choice to make, to either purchase a more expensive car, in good condition, with a dealer’s warranty or buy a car that was both cheap in price and quality, with many more miles on the odometer and more technical problems. While at first, purchasing the cheaper car seemed like a good idea for Person B, leaving him with more money in his wallet and a vehicle to take him from point A to B, it soon became apparent that the costs of his decision will be delayed and pricey. The insurance for Person B’s car came out to be more expensive, since the vehicle was seen as unsafe by the insurance company. The costs also began piling on with every breakdown and repair the car needed. As we can see, this is another situation where something free, or cheaper ends up costing more as time goes on.
If you look hard enough, there are numerous situations in life where this saying can be applied, and as such we should take care to look ahead into the future before making a purchase, to make sure the final bill will be worth the product or service we received.