Thursday, October 26, 2006

Is Anything Really Free? The birth of Nu-free.

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The other day Sue and I were talking about whether anything was really free. Imagine if there were really free things. Wouldn't that violate the rules of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and karma.

My position was that every offer of free could be (or should be) put in the conditional if/then form to be honest.

Here's what I mean... IF you 'whatever' THEN you get free 'something'.

Sue said air was free. I said IF you breathe THEN you get air.
She said sunshine was free. I said IF you are on the sunny side of the planet THEN you get sunshine. Get the idea.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and make a logical error. I say that EVERY free offer is really a BRIBE. Usually it's a ethical bribe, because you get to decide if what you get has a value equal to or greater than what you give.

So I've created a new word that more meaningful (and honest). At least as far as I'm concerned. It's Nu-free.

What's nu-free? It comes from the phrase Not Unconditionally Free.

I don't really expect nu-free to become a word in common everyday usage. It's more an idea to remind you that there are strings attached to every offer of free.


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