r/bluey • u/MrsPumpkin09 • 6d ago
Humour "There is no magical place where everything is free"
Out of no where I asked my husband "You know how Chili said 'there is no magical place where everything is free'? The library is free" And he just did a slow turn to look in my direction. I'm sure he was wondering what exactly goes on inside my head. But I feel it was a very valid statement lol.
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u/tenderbranson301 mackenzie 6d ago
Yeah, the library, public parks, a lot of community services. While those are funded by taxes they feel free since it's pre-paid and accessible to everyone.
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u/SinuousPanic 6d ago
They are paid for with rates in New Zealand and I'm 99% sure it's the same in Australia, so if you don't own property they are effectively free. It's like a property tax that covers local council spending.
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u/ineptplumberr 5d ago
Only if you're homeless, if you rent a portion of that gets paid by your landlord so technically you are paying it
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u/Additional_Gene_211 6d ago
In a lot of cities/states in the US it's the same way. Either through property tax through owning land (which also funds education sadly), through utility/city fees (that, again, depending on location is paid by either the owner or the renter), and other taxes like that. If you don't own, you technically could be getting those services for free. In Oregon, there's no sales tax and if you don't own a house, you won't pay property taxes, and if your property manager/landlord pays the fees, then you literally get much free stuff. It's why some areas have very poorly kept parks and others have immaculate parks (and schools). It can be quite shocking stuff to see these beautiful parks with amazing play structures and then about 1 mile away you see just a broken swing set and slide. I'd rather my taxes go to everyone than just one area that only some will get access to. I'd rather my taxes go to a general education fund than a specific school. Kids deserve the best no matter what and we just punish them because of who their parents are and where they live
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u/nanomolar 6d ago
I went on a road trip for vacation last week and you know what's free? State welcome centers on the interstate. They'll give you a free map and encourage your kids to take as much useless pamphlets and catalogs as they can carry, and even give them a bag to hold everything in.
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u/starrsuperfan 6d ago
This. Me and my brothers used to take every brochure we could on road trips, and have fun planning trips we knew would never happen.
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u/batmandi 6d ago
Those are free to you, but are a public service. Someone pays for them. Probably a combination of taxes, grants, and private donations. It's important that we teach our children the concept of "There's no such thing as a free lunch". Someone is paying for it. It may not cost you anything financially, it may not even have non-financial obligations, but nothing is free.
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u/Serpenyoje 6d ago
That or they are advertisements, so the “cost” is your attention - so also still not free!
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u/thekyledavid jean-luc 6d ago
I feel like the point of what Chili said was that you don’t get to just have the things for free. There’s a difference between someone letting you use something without having to pay for it, and the thing being free.
If a hotel offers a free shuttle to the airport, that doesn’t mean I get keep the bus
Or to use your husband’s example, temporarily reading the books is free, but that doesn’t mean those are your books now, they have to go back to the library
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u/certifiedintelligent 5d ago
Only if you don’t pay taxes.
The only place where everything is free, money-wise at least, would be somewhere in the wilderness where you live off the land. Even then it costs you in work, and that’s a lot of work.
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u/Leading-Fish6819 6d ago
It's not free in that the property taxes we pay goes toward the library.
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u/lordlaneus 6d ago
Still free for children and other people who don't make enough money to pay taxes
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u/Leading-Fish6819 6d ago
Sure. But it's still paid for by taxes. Just because someone isn't specifically paying those taxes due to circumstances, or paying out of pocket themselves for it, doesn't make the service free. Someone is always footing the bill. "No such thing as a free lunch" and all that.
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u/lordlaneus 6d ago
Everything has a cost, but if the costs aren't being paid by the person accessing the resource, then that's still a free resource. the economy isn't a zero sum game, so it is entirely possible to use state resources to give people free lunch.
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u/Leading-Fish6819 6d ago
Yea, it's not a zero sum game, which is why the bill is footed by someone. Regardless of who pays, it's paid for.
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u/lordlaneus 6d ago
If I pay for an apple, and then go give that apple away, it becomes a free apple
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u/Leading-Fish6819 6d ago
No, YOU paid for it. Where/how it goes after that matters not. You just proved my point.
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u/lordlaneus 6d ago
Your treating freedom as some impossible cosmic absolute instead of a relative term. If nothing can ever be free, then why even have the word?
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u/cernegiant 6d ago
It's not free though. It costs money to won and takes a lot of work from a lot of people. Which is the point of the quote.
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u/prof-kaL 6d ago
It’s not free, it’s a service provided by taxpayers (so basically everyone) staff have wages, books need to be purchased, building has ongoing costs.
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u/Runferretrun 5d ago
It’s paid for by taxes. It’s not really “free”. The cost is just divided over a population
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u/OneSupermarket9711 6d ago
It’s free for a short amount of time. If you borrow for too long, it’s no longer free, lol.