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My father once told me, “That if you want to double your money, just fold it in half.”  Wise advise in this day and age of Bankers that rip you off, stockbrokers the cheat you, politicians that lie to you and do not have the public’s best interest at heart, and the Guru’s of Internet Marketing, that promise you so much, but deliver so very little.  I look at offers every day on my computer that say, this offer or that are absolutely free, except for a mall shipping and handling charge.   The concept of free, has been greatly diluted, and when they combine it with absolutely free, I feel that I have learned a different type of the English Language.  Free use to mean that the only cost involved, if you consider time a cost, was the amount of time it took you to accept the offer.  

When my Dad gave me a free fishing pole with the Shakespeare Casting Reel, that was left on his truck by the owner of the Hardware store, who had found out it was my birthday, the only cost to me was to say, “Thank you.”  He did not charge me shipping and handling, free meant free!

When I look at advertisements today, whether in magazines or on the Internet, I am offered another free thing, “the free offer.”   This makes me crazier.  You can use something for free for a certain amount of time but after that, you have to pay, but don’t worry, they’ll just take it out of your credit or debit card, which, of course, never charges you any type of fees or interest for the transaction.  In a Pig’s eye.   If you have something that you think is so good that I will by, show me.  If you think I would better respond to the purchase, and you offer it to me for a month on condition that I will buy it if I like it or I will send the product back, you have not offered me a free product but a user demonstration model.  Just tell me that, quit using free offer, because all “Offers” are by definition “Free” it is the acceptance and consideration that cost.  

That is what irks me today.  Take it, it’s FREE!