The Free Store

This is an old idea that was first seen in the hippie movement at the summer of love. But I wonder if it is ever possible to make it work.

Things are cheaper when they are mass produced, but this requires big expensive machinery and infrastructure. Therefore individuals don't ever invest large amounts of money into these complex machines to get something for free later on. Only large businesses do, because they're in it for the profit.

Services would never be free but "goods" can be free indefinitely after the initial up front investment in machinery or equipment that makes them.

So hopefully if nice people would either donate equipment or money for equipment, then someday we may have a "free store" in every neighborhood. Some businesses sometimes donate things like old doughnut machines for free, that they don't want anymore, as long as you take it off of there hands. But then you also have to take on the task of refurbishing it.

Some examples of things that are free after you own the equipment are:

(1)Rain water sanitized by a UV tube and solar panels, or distilled by a heating element and solar panels.

(2)Ice from the store is free if you have an electric ice maker hooked up to solar power.

(3)Wood can be free from fallen trees in a nearby forest that you can get admitted into for collecting free wood. But always be sure that the forest is big enough for the population size, so that you don't deplete national resources.

(4)Solar charging stations for electric cars when the new ultra-capacitor tech comes out in 2009(from zenn cars). Also electric cars have almost zero maintenance and last longer than normal cars from less moving parts. So driving could be essentially free one day. And you wouldn't even need to buy a rental car for trips, from no worries of yours breaking down.

(5)Some foods can be free if they're planted behind the store. Plant foods such as: Black berries, strawberries, blueberries, fruit trees (in there natural climate:apple/banana). veggies: cucumber squash, lettuce herbs, potatoes, onions. All of these foods require almost no maintenance and practically grow themselves, and last for years or forever without needing replanting. Cider can be free if you bring in old apples that are fallen off of a tree and then the machine presses out the juice and pasteurizes it. Same with apple sauce. And dried fruit can also be manufactured for free if you brought in the fruit to be dried. Frozen french fries could also be made free, from a machine out of free potatoes that the customer brought in. You can make many full sized potato plants out of only one potato by just cutting up the potato and its eyes into sections and planting.

(6)Recycling plant to make free paper products and free plastic products, and maybe even free metal products. After people have separated out their garbage into different material piles, then the trash collectors, from the free store, pick it up for free.

(7)Chemicals that are automated to produce are distilled alcohol, and caustic soda/"drano" from electrolysis of salt water. You just need the equipment and the solar panels. Hydrogen and oxygen and chlorine can also be made in this way.

(8)Free wifi internet connection in the store. That's normal for businesses these days though.

(9)You could have free video and game rentals if you bought them at their marked price with real money, and then you can return them at any time as long as you still have the receipt. And these things are donated to the store originally. This is the same thing that modern libraries do really, which is just as good. But the clerks work off of the tips from every bought video.

(10) Yeast can be made into a colony that lasts indefinitely, and as long as you have flour(which is cheap) then you can make infinite bread out of one batch of yeast, with a solar powered bread factory.

We may not have everything done for us for free anytime soon but gradually as new technology is developed then more things will be produced for free, by machines, for us. It's just a matter of putting those machines in public possession instead of corporate possession. What's the good of brand name anymore anyway when HP and Dell printers have their printers engineered with planned obsolescence and are loosing face because of the ink cartridge chip scam that they never told anyone about.