Do you believe the word “free” these days basically means tax payers money is paying for it?

[Anonymous]

[Soteris]

I do not think those two things are mutually exclusive. Lets take a road for example. It obviously cost money to build that road, quite a lot in fact when you build roads across a whole country. But, unless you are driving on a toll road (which is a whole different conversation) I would argue that it is free to use said road. In my eyes the tax payer builds up the service but once it is built it is there for free for everyone to either enjoy or utilize. It is overall, a fairly great system and I think fit the word "free" very well.

[DoggyDude]

Not always, here are the ways I see free these days:

1) Marketing (to get you to think favourably of some brand)
2) Generosity (when people have more than they need, and would rather see others get it than go to waste)
3) Temptation (giving it away, to hook someone into needing it)
4) Google (50% a cynical way to keep a majority position, 50% the way they gained that position by genuinely offering something people previous had to pay for).

[FreyaRed]

Most "free" things are financed with taxes maybe some things like walking in a forest are free but there is not much really free stuff.

[TrueConfection]

Someone is paying for "free".

There's no such thing as a free lunch!

[sawno]

No that only applies when the government is involved. I use free and open source software for example, made by people passionate about their software and using it as a hobby. Nobody paid them to do it and I get to use it for free, they just do it for fun and because they want such software to exist.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Who else would be paying for it?

Unless someone does something out of altruism, someome else has to pay the price, either the government or some exploited workers, or you are paying with something else like your private data.

[RebelinSteel]

In a commercial sense, it’s tax payers or those buying products offsetting the costs.

[NaultD]

Ads or our statistics is being sold.

[laly520]

no one is truly free

[gorydetails]

100%

[In_Trance]

pretty much

[xghndjds]

I hate islam