Interesting topic, and the RyanAir business model is definitely an innovate one. You lay out some interesting examples, but I am not convinced that free as defined here is necessarily a good thing. Water is often times free or very cheap. But, this leads people to treat it like it worthless and over use it. Free=spam. If email cost even a penny an email, there would be no spam. While free email is great, I wouldn't mind spending $5-10 a month if I never had to look at another spam email in my life. I am not so sure that commodity prices are headed to zero. Oil prices and other energy sources are going up, and this will lead to other commodities becoming more expensive as well. While food has gotten more inexpensive in the US, it is not clear that is necessarily a good thing. There are negative environmental and health impacts of this food system, which might mean we would be better off with more expensive, healthier and more environmentally friendly produced food. All other countries in the world spend a higher percentage of their money on food, and the US might do well to follow their lead. While cellphones have become free paid for by cellphone service, Apple has gone the opposite direction with the iPod charging for the hardware but allowing people to get free content (through file sharing). Americans watch so many advertisements it has become a part time job (the average American watches 11 hours of advertisements a week). Not sure I would consider considered in this manner to be free, and it fact I would rather pay to watch TV shows on DVD through Netflix than when they are broadcast exactly because I don't want to spend my time on the ads.