Conceptualizing "Free Gifts"

In thinking about the concept of giving a "free" gift, I do not believe, on a literal level, that any action goes without selfish intent, whether conscious or subconscious. Human nature is built on a system of wants/needs. Some sort of want is always the basis of a gift.

To argue against that statement, one might say that charitable acts are gifts given freely. Generally speaking, those acts can be labeled as “free,” but taken down to a basic level one who commits acts of charity is satisfying a desire to do “good.” This being said, an exchange occurs; whatever action was committed has been paid for.

The only reason people would like to believe that a gift can be free is because we create moral “codes” in which we live and behave. By “freely” giving a gift, we are only satisfying this inherent need to follow a moral code, whether the source of action is out of compassion, sympathy, religion, law, or society’s opinion of the individual.

No gift is “free.”