This link was sent to me by a friend. It’s a wonderful, musical youtube example of TANSTAAFL. It’s a cross between folk singing and Riverdance with the topic being modern so-called “discounted” flights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM
Check out the subtitles.
Television news is another area that used to be roped off from the profit motive. When Walter Cronkite died last week, it was odd to see news anchor after news anchor talking about how much better the news coverage was back in Cronkite’s day. I thought, “Gee, if only you were in a position to do something about it.”
Any time a significant service is presented to the consumer as free of cost, it likely is costing something and someone somewhere else. The trick is to find that somewhere else and decide if you’re OK with that. In more than a few cases recently, I don’t think you should be.