"It just take a little labor" 🙄 means it's not free.

Figuring out how to find & extract gold, or how to find & extract oil & then to refine it & make an engine to harness the energy from oil is definitely not free.

How many people can produce enough food for themselves with so little effort that they can work "for free" at something other than producing food which won't pay off for years? Trading your labor for money in a comfortable air conditioned office is much easier than subsistance farming & mining raw materials & converting said raw materials into a more usable form.

It's certainly true that there are people working to erode your compensation by undermining your tool of exchange. But the sort of people who think everything is "free" are not the sort who thrive or even survive in a world without money. Nothing is free.