I’ve been mulling over the idea of ‘free’, a concept which Chris Anderson outlines in his book of the same title, and am particularly interested in the idea of free education. It seems to me, that there is a bit of a paradox when reviewing the specifics of the idea: education provides society with the means to pull itself out of poverty, as it gives the people the tools to build a better living environment. However, it has been the driving force for increased personal and state debt, it creates greater divides (particularly economic) and it reminds us that human beings have been horrible to one another since the beginning of time.

Free is of course, not free. At some point, someone made a sacrifice for something, whether it be time, money or effort, to provide you with free goods. And education is by no means free, even when a government claims it is free. It is free because a government collects taxes to provide public goods to create a better society.

I’m thinking of the concept of The University of the People - the free university that links students to NYU - one of the most expensive and prestigious universities in New York. What happened to allow the University of the People to link their classes to NYU’s? NYU tuition probably increased to deal with the increased library fees and improvements to technology to allow for smart classrooms. Still, an ingenius idea to spread a quality education to the far ends of the world.

I am not against ‘free’, but I do think that people need to understand that free is expensive for someone at some point. Think about the music, magazines, newspapers and books. What is the cost of them being free?