Wanna eat free lunch..???

Airtel raised the local sms rates to 30ps for Aitel-Airtel... which was free until then.. and national sms to Rs.2 from 30ps... If the latter was accepted with a squeaky frown by the users (including yours truly), the former was a shocker... How the hell can they charge for something which was free until now.. After all, in Chennai/TN people enjoy free national sms.. We could find a couple of unpleasant things about the mobile services that I hope would change sooner than later.. but when it comes to charging I feel Airtel (and other service providers in Karnataka) has set the right example which ought to be tagged on by others as well... My queston is.. Why do u want something for free..?? Businesses are not here to give something out for nothing... Talking of a capitalistic economy which forms the order of the world, its as simple as 'if u use something, pay for it'.. Freebies make people take things for granted... atleast.. in the case of sms its very true... There are umpteen girls who get some rubbish sms to their mobiles from anonymous numbers... Just because sms is free some unscrupulous idiots resort to such insane mischiefs.. Lets see how much of this comes when sms is charged at Rs.2. Besides this, with such freebies the means outlives the purpose... phone/mobile/sms/mms are primarily a means of communication and not for teen hijacking... there are many articles in papers where parents of teens worry about their child's addiction to sending messages which cost absolutely nothing to the parents in terms of money but costs a lot to their peace of mind... and not to mention unnecessary distraction for the teens for whom the "interesting" anonymous guy at the other end always adds lots of "glamour" to their living... The moment u add a price tag.. its intersting how things change rapidly... teens need to go back to parents if they want to dole out some currency for their mobile.. thereby giving parents an idea of their usage and hence a constant check... the mischievous jacks are sure to find spending 2 rupees for every mischief they do become harder by the day.. after all, if this is their only occupation then they are likely to run out of money soon... and for the other "professional" users this would make their hair sit up and use the means within the boundary of its purpose... In the age when we talk of removing all subsidies and a no free electricity for farmers syndrome et. al., why should the salaried class be spared with freebies..??? A lesson learnt..!!