My sister, over at Knot in the Rope, has a post on how misleading many “free” can be. Very few things are really free.

What is the mentality of “free”? It’s the belief that “free” means there is NO cost!  Take the lunches I mentioned:  sure, they’re not asking the kids who come to hand over some cash to get lunch, but that food doesn’t just materialize out of nowhere and the people there cooking and serving aren’t just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.  SOMEONE is paying for this program — in this case the federal government, which translates to the taxpayers!

Read the whole thing.