“Free” stuff just isn’t free, and we need to stop using that term
Over the last several years, with increasing abandon, the term providing “free” things has been a central theme of American political discourse. For instance Bernie Sanders maintained (and is still maintaining a) pledge to “Make Public Colleges, Universities, and Trade Schools Free for All”.[i] There’s been calls to make health care “free” and universal. Even the US government provided COVID-19 vaccines are said to be “… free and available to anyone who wants one.”.[ii] Here is the thing, however, they are absolutely NOT free. Higher education, for instance, costs tens of thousands of dollars per student annually.[iii] Health care represents approximately 20% of the US GDP, which represents over $4 trillion of the US economy.[iv] Simply put, these things cost something and have enormous value. Last I checked, money doesn’t grow on trees and there is a severe limitation for how long we can just print money before it has larger economic implications (e.g. becomes worthless).
Front cover of the seminal text on the issues with “Free” Parking[v]
Besides those realities, the whole mentality of making something “free”, that really isn’t, is massively detrimental. The quintessential example of this is the affliction that “free parking” has had on the US in particular, but broadly across the globe. In his over seven hundred page text (cover pictured here), Donald Shoup, PhD., lays out in excruciating detail how, despite the moniker, “free parking” is exceptionally expensive. He puts into specific relief the costs to society and to the individual that is a part of a place and system that employs the paradigm that is “free parking”. And he makes the case, strongly, that part of the “high cost of free parking” is that it has created perverse and spiraling incentives that only create more costs and more damage. He lays out how the mere fact that people believe it ought to be free, as if it was a right, is massively damaging in two distinct ways: 1) that the ones paying for it are not even often aware how much or how imbalanced it is for what they get and 2) it creates the illusion that there is not an incredible amount of value (sunk or otherwise) in the provisioning of said capacity. In other words people take it for granted and people don’t have a clue about the bill they are actually being forced to pay for it. He lays out, as a set of prescriptions, that we make it transparent how much it is costing and reform the systems in place to align usage to who pays for it, equitably, in the marketplace. In this sense, what is “free parking” would be an ever more appropriately called “taxpayer subsidized” or “taxpayer provided” parking.
This exact analysis translates to any government provided service or provision of goods. They are not “free”. Someone is (or someones are) paying for it. Even if you don’t have to pay directly for it at the point of service, its still not “free at the point of service”, its “provided to you by the taxpayer” or “provided to you on account of your being a taxpayer”. We simply need to expunge this notion of things being “free”, because the only real things that are free are those natural and inalienable rights that simply are a part of being. And to that, this incessant need, especially on the political left, to make things free, or assert a “right” that is anything but, really diminishes the value of what it is that they are advocating for.
I am all for the idea that we have a social compact that is managed and facilitated through the government as the final arbiter. I further believe that it could be a good thing, for instance, to support a drive to fully taxpayer provided post-secondary education (tied to a national service requirement, military or otherwise) as a potential model. It cannot nor should not, however, be considered “free”. We need to get our heads around the fact that there are things that are common goods that necessitate contributions through mandatory efforts (we did NOT fight a revolution against paying taxes; we did fight the revolution to end paying taxes we did not have a say in imposing on ourselves[vi]). It is a necessary thing, for instance, to promote and ensure that the demos in a democratic republic, are educated sufficiently to self-govern themselves. Relying on secondary education as the only requirement in a lifetime to achieve that need, as the majority proportion in society, is no longer sufficient. Trade schools, higher education, and other certification or education pathways are needed. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure this happens, not just those that choose those pathways. And we ought to be clairvoyant enough to call it like it is: taxpayer subsidized, taxpayer supported, and/or taxpayer provided (depending on the level of fiscal support provided to the program). Likewise, if we choose for universal pre-K or healthcare or what ever other program we enact or service that is provided. Its not free. It costs something, it has value, and it is a part of what we pay for as citizens.
So, stop it with the “free” mantra. It’s a falsehood. Get on with meeting our responsibilities as taxpayers and being clairvoyant about what government can and does for us. After all, that is what we are paying for, whether we know it, like it, or not.
[i] https://berniesanders.com/issues/free-college-cancel-debt/, accessed on 2 September 2022
[ii] https://www.vaccines.gov/, accessed on 2 September 2022
[iii] https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED498601.pdf,
[iv] https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NationalHealthAccountsHistorical#:~:text=U.S.%20health%20care%20spending%20grew,For%20additional%20information%2C%20see%20below., accessed on 2 September 2022
[v] For short synopsis of this 700+ page text, you can read it at this link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235359727_The_High_Cost_of_Free_Parking
[vi] Further, despite what the talking heads and politicians keep professing, we live in a democratic republic, which we, as citizens, are the ones going in the voting booth to have a say about. It is only because, “we the people” have let them get away with it, that we have the results that we have and the obfuscations are so thick.
