No charge! Free?

I have read several times that the most important word in advertising is "free".  I suppose "no charge" is rated highly, too.  

An old saying in environmental matters is "there is no free lunch."  As far as I can tell, there is no free anything.  Ok, if you give me a used toilet as a gift, there will probably not be any deduction from my checking account and no reduction in my pocket change. But to have the beautiful porcelain toilet installed will take expenditure for supplies.  In my case, labor costs too, since I don't trust myself to install plumbing fixtures.  

Katrina Keniston in her blog The Gift of an Ordinary Day quotes the famous naturalist John Muir, "Tug on anything at all and you will find that it is connected to everything else in the universe."  I think older people tend to realize that there are unseen and unexpected connections everywhere.  That is one of the reasons younger people tend to be faster: they don't realize that a wonderful "gift" has impacts that are unpredictable and some of them will be unwanted.

Today, the lady said happily, "The good news is that it is still under warranty and there is no charge."  I am glad to have no charge, no need to give away some of my greenbacks. But rearranging my schedule, driving there and back, finding that the repair itself is a bit incomplete and requires further service -- all those are "charges" against my time, my life, my car, the roads, our atmosphere, our supply of gasoline, etc.  

I have read environmental commentary that says just about nobody anywhere calculates true and complete costs.  Most environmental costs, damages and depletions are simply ignored.  I suspect that those concerned with pricing and cost analysis are trying to develop more complete and insightful accounts of the full cost of our activities.  As we pay to clean our atmosphere, handle exotic metals and compounds in life and in disposal, we are beginning to see more of the connections between our desires, our habits and the resulting costs.  Of course, many of the costs are worth paying but it helps sometimes to know what they are.