Too cheap to meter describes a concept in which a commodity is so cheap that the usual amounts a consumer needs are so small compared with bulk production costs that it is more cost-effective and less bureaucratic to simple provide it for a flat fee or even provide it free and make a profit from associated services.
The phrase originated with Walter Marshall, a pioneer of nuclear power in the United Kingdom, who promised his countrymen that the energy produced by the new energy source would be "too cheap to meter".[1]
References
- ^ Nuclear doubts gnaw deeper - BBC News, Thursday, 15 June, 2000