The things of most value are free.  That's one of the claims of the new economy, the one that's based on the ecology of  information.  Since information is (or should be) free, economies based on information should reflect that price point.  As information technology proliferates, the rules of the information economy will have a dramatic influence on other sectors. Prices will come down.  We're all ready seeing commodity prices falling world wide.  And inflation is at a 30 year low.  Some of this can be attributed to the competitive ecology of the information economy as it infects other material sectors.  And this is all good.  One day, we'll give away the car in order to sell the gasoline (or the electricity -- or the nuclear fuel dujour).  All this is very good, as the disparity of fortunes we see in our species (have versus have not) will be ameliorated significantly when creature comfort commodities are all or mostly free or basically free.  Indeed, this is a utopian view.

But do we get there without pain?  Hardly.  Consider the simple story of the strip mall in these transitional years of increasing online retail.  As more and more retail takes place online, there will be casualties.  The more enlightened traditional malls will most likely diversify, finding other methods to entice people to enjoin the real world shopping experience -- something beyond discounts and sales -- something that can only be encountered in a real world experience.  The mall, after all, has other people, theaters, multitudes of snack food possibilities, waterfalls, sculpture.  The mall is the town square of modern western civilization.  Hence, the mall will likely survive the onslaught of the unbridled competitive forces of cyberspace, although it must be keenly aware of the differentiating potentials only it can offer over the more sublime one-on-one marketing that's coming soon to a net portal near you.  With sound management and creative thought, the mall will survive.  Not so, the strip mall.

The strip mall will be one of the first visible casualties of the Information Age.  What can a strip mall possibly offer me that I cannot get online?  Convenience?  Hardly.  Anything I can get at a drive strip mall I can much more easily get online -- sporting goods, snow tires, musical instruments, books.  Soon, even groceries delivered via a net-based interface.  Banking online at home will become as common as ATMs.  What can the strip mall offer?  Junk food?  Beer?  Gasoline?  Maybe the 7-11, the Circle-K, the Shop 'n Go will survive.  But not the strip mall.  That suburban artifact of 1950s Americana will soon go the way of the drive-in theater.  But not without pain.

What will strip mall owners do when their once valuable real estate no longer demands sufficient rents to ensure a viable enterprise?  Will there be a strip mall depression?  A glut of strip mall real estate, strip mall ghost towns and ghettos?  Flea market infestations where once a healthy strip mall stood?  That's the cost of free stuff; the painful transition from one civilization to the next.  We are at the edge of that new civilization, make no mistake about it.  And yes, there will be casualties.  It's hard to say what other metaphorical strip malls will yet be discarded by the gods of destruction that usher in this new era.  But it is safe to say that we cannot make such a transition without such pain.  Hence, the high cost of free stuff.  Free stuff doesn't come without a price, and ultimately one that will be borne by all.