Will Things End Up Free?

Will things end up free? Yesterday I noticed an example where at least in terms of utility this would seem to be the case. I was returning from the garage and remembered we were out of what we shall call 'wipes'. I found a generic pack of fifteen for a £1 in the local off-licence. When I used them I discerned little difference in physical quality between them and those I might usually buy, at a far higher cost, in Tescos. If we assume that there is just one fully automated factory making all the 'wipes' in the world (that capitalism has done it's job, and that the owner of that factory has become very rich), that difference is all in complex branding and marketing. 

Of course the raw materials in the 100% polyester wipe cost something, as do transportation costs, but the only labour would appear to be the stacking of shelves! There would not even be administration in a factory that made no profit (only maintenance) assuming that the product had reached full maturity and there was no need for further 'development'; that it was fully biodegradable and so on (like Le Corbusier's purist wine bottles for example). Of course if we assumed it was fully recyclable, we would even abolish raw material costs!

Meanwhile the off-licence and Tescos are to some extent in competition. Those people in marketing, branding and administration have realised that their customers generally buy such things as wipes as part of their weekly shop, not off the cuff from the off-licence. If the products are essentially the same, the Tescos people must be hoping you do not notice their mark-up, and that the owner of the off-licence doesn't bother to put a sign in his window advertising cheaper wipes. 

Since so many of us might work in marketing, branding and administration within corporations, this might be seen as fine and dandy, unless of course you realise that your instincts are being manipulated when it comes to even the most basic of utilities by those very corporations. If people were to get very angry about this the big retailers would all immediately give their wipes away free, and the owner of the World's Wipe Factory would pledge to maintain his machines for life for nothing, by way of thanks, and nobody with a grain of sense would take the slightest interest in marketing, branding and administration.