by Lawrence George

Created on: November 26, 2009   Last Updated: September 22, 2010

What are the best things in life? We could all agree on the meaning of "free" but what about these "best things"? What are they?

To enjoy life properly, you need health. One of the best things in life is therefore health. Sometimes keeping it is a matter of luck, but it is also a matter of making the right choices regarding food, drink and exercise. If you belong to a gym, or buy fresh food only, perhaps even organic food, then this is most definitely not free. In fact, it is frequently highly expensive. Farmers' markets are more expensive than Tesco's. Gym membership is somewhere near 40 pounds per month.

Health is not given to you - you have to buy it and keep it in a well-maintained condition. Not free, sadly.

Furthermore, to enjoy life properly, you need somewhere to live. The recession notwithstanding, house prices here in the UK are still somewhere between ridiculous and astronomical for anyone earning anywhere near the median wage of 25 000 pounds a year. It is cheaper in some ways to rent, but that comes with its own problems, such as the likelihood of being made homeless at a couple of months' notice.

Living in a home is therefore not free, nor even cheap. Then there are utility bills, rising constantly, and local taxes to pay for the bins which are collected ever more infrequently.

If you were not to be lonely in your house with your health, you would really need someone to enjoy life with. A partner. Yes of course, on the whole, we do not buy our partners. Think about it though: when you first meet someone you date them. Dinner, theatre, movie. Free dates don't, on the whole, go down all that well with a prospective new partner. "Hey I've just had a great idea for our first date. Why don't we go for a walk round the park?"

Date 20 maybe, dates 1-19 no. Then there are the new clothes you need and the new haircut. Dating is an expensive business, even after your signing-on fee to the internet dating site has been taken into account. The free stuff: love, lust, kissing and more - that all comes after the money has been spent.

A satisfying job. That doesn't cost you - in fact, it earns you money. Sure. But it costs you in other ways. It is stressful, which means you lose health. It is demanding, which means you have less time to spend on other things that might be free.

What else is great? Laughter - comedy DVDs cost money. Going out with friends costs money. Beer - ditto. Reading - either you pay for your books or you get them from your tax-funded library. A beautiful sunset over the hills - maintaining the countryside costs a fortune if we are to prevent it turning to wilderness again. The sun itself is free, I'll grant you that.

So that leaves air. Air is the only good thing in life that is free. But if you want clean air, then we need to clean up polluting companies and try to deal with noxious particles and gases. Expensive business.

Frankly, the number of things in life that aren't free could be counted on the fingers of one finger. Even death is expensive.

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