Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
Why on earth would you want that many gazelles anyway?

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Economy of Free Society

take the free web apps to the next stage and do it with everything
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Free electric cars distributed by the energy supplier, where you pay for the recharging only if you don't wish to view the freely-made advertisements. Or you could always choose to ride your free-bike to the free-bus station, while eating a free meal. (This is the one society where there actually are free meals.)

All these free things are only with the basics, and you can accessorize with expensive gadgets, although you know for a fact that within a short time, they too will be free.

In this new type of society and economy you are evaluated for how altruistic you are, and at the same time inventive, in finding new ways of income as more and more of your business goes free.

The public is always aware that any minute some business may change its terms of service and demand pay, and so there is a constant incentive for developing more and better alternative free services for the benefit of society.

Since, for example, the first gasoline company to give out gasoline for free will be a local company, no competition from foreign companies is possible, and prices will drop drastically. The same will happen in every economical field.

Because the free products will not themselves be the source of income, and in order to reduce costs, the consumer product manufacturers and corporations will be the ones researching and finding new ways of recycling, reuse and handling in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way.

The green-movement NGO's will have free-transportation, free-computers, and staffed by free-students from free- universities, developing free-programs for new ways to preserve and enhance the natural habitat and to create a more friendly society.

Scientists will have free laboratories, and will give out free information as opposed to the current system, where real scientific discovery is kept secret. Better medicine will be developed and distributed freely, and the free-media will distribute free educational programs to adults as well as children.

My free time is up, so I'll leave the rest of this idea's development to you, my fellow half bakers.

pashute, Nov 03 2014

If it is all free... http://en.wikipedia...gedy_of_the_commons
then you get a sort of Tragedy of the commons waste and over use. [popbottle, Nov 04 2014]

Every once in a while this will happen http://thenextweb.c...aid-for-experience/
[pashute, Nov 04 2014]

Ad sponsored medicine This_20Drop_20In_20...y_20The_20Superbowl
[theircompetitor, Nov 04 2014]

Free shops http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Give-away_shop
[pocmloc, Nov 04 2014]

[link]






       <ptr>click here to read what nmrm said about pashute's post, only 5c</ptr>   

       (it's got to working sometime)
not_morrison_rm, Nov 03 2014
  

       Where does the local gasoline company get the free gasoline that they give away, and who pays for the distribution costs (fuel for trucks hauling gasoline to gas stations, electricity to run fuel pumps at gas stations, etc.)?
Vernon, Nov 04 2014
  

       [Vernon] there will be adverts while you fill up of course; perhaps half-full is free, pay £20 to fill right up! Can we check your oil and tyres (£5) and screenwash (£5)? Coffee sir? (£5.99 per small cup). Oh you have the £50/month membership card, you should have said, turn left for the priority pumps with carpeted forecourt and complimentary tissues!
pocmloc, Nov 04 2014
  

       Well exactly, Vernon, and PopBottle (and thanks for the link!), NOT everything is free. But its like Hotmail/GMail, Google/Bing, GIMP/Pixlr, Docs/OpenOffice, Soundation/AudioTool and many more.   

       What is their business plan? What is Google's real business plan? Where is their income from?   

       Some are playing on the stock market. Some first get a wide base of users and then sell some of the information somehow (perhaps to the military, to civil intelligence, or to organized crime syndicates, or to a combination of those). Others are waiting for a time when their clients will be willing to pay for retaining the service, or for some subset of extra services. Others still, like TeamViewer and some of the Linux versions, as promised by the Open Source initiatives, make their money from corporate usage, or from expert services around their product.   

       The free-gasoline will go of course with a retrofit to the gas intake. Cars that have it, can get free-gasoline. But at a "price". Its not money that you pay, but you are now that company's "install base".   

       So the local gasoline company giving away gasoline would in return receive some information about the car and driver, would force the driver to visit and go through the store in order to get the free coupon, or, would advertise the virtues of better quality paid-for gasoline at their stations. And then again, it may be the luxury car companies that pay for it.   

       And then there's pocmloc's great idea, very fitting for the halfbakery. I didn't notice he beat me to it. As I said in the idea, you are evaluated in this type of society, for how inventive you are in finding new ways of income within the "free giving" framework.
pashute, Nov 04 2014
  

       <not working>ptr tag</not working>   

       And are nickles still used?
pashute, Nov 04 2014
  

       Also as productivity increases, there will be more and more need for 'handouts' (as we already see with the growth of the welfare state etc.) leading eventually to some kind of 'citizens income' (funded through land value and/or resource use taxes). After that, people will have the option to provide their labour for free (since they get enough to live on as their share of the commons that are used by others).
pocmloc, Nov 04 2014
  

       Will there be free jobs?
xandram, Nov 04 2014
  

       So, "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs"? That sounds familiar somehow.
MechE, Nov 04 2014
  

       I hope that advertising has a huge budget, because nobody's going to buy much of anything.
RayfordSteele, Nov 04 2014
  

       No, [MechE], need and ability are not criteria, only desire.
pocmloc, Nov 04 2014
  

       Is this like the printer costs $5 and the ink refills $55 ? or the cellphone is free with a 3 year contract ? or the beer is free but the urinal costs $10 per use ?
FlyingToaster, Nov 05 2014
  

       Any of thse are possible models.
pocmloc, Nov 05 2014
  

       But on a bigger scale, and looking to see the consequences. As of now, most of the developed world have a free email account and a free Facebook account, so what will happen when vehicles, and air transportation and power and food begin to enter that trend?   

       Yes Ray, but on a larger scale.
pashute, Nov 05 2014
  

       Graeber's book 'Debt' has some interesting comments here, how every society uses communist, authoritarian, anarchist and capitalist models for different interactions. The only difference being how much and when. So a free economy is only radical by degree, not by nature.
pocmloc, Nov 05 2014
  

       The Freemium / Free apps are very different economically than what you're proposing.   

       The apps have zero incremental costs to deploy to another user. They consider those extra free users as a marketing channel to reach the harder-to-find "whales" that pay the in- app-purchases to accelerate their progress.   

       There's no equivalent with physical goods, as the incremental costs to deliver gasoline & other materials is non-zero. In fact, for commodities, there's very little margin, so any business giving away commodities would have huge losses & die away. Any "Physical Freemium" economy would quickly evolve back into something more like what we have today based on those physical parameters & human incentives.   

       Given all that, there is a proven "razor/razor-blades" strategy, where you give only one part of an ecosystem away for (nearly) free, building dependence for the expensive part.   

       Oh, & sorry for taking this too seriously. No fishbone or anything.
sophocles, Nov 05 2014
  

       Reminds me of the story about the guy who brought in a container full of left foot shoes. The tax guys at customs confiscated the container and then when no-one claimed it, they sold it at the customs. He bought it for nothing, because no one wants a container of left foot shoes.   

       He then imported a container of the right foot shoes.
pashute, Nov 11 2014
  
      
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