You get what you pay for. A free gym would likely have poor maintanence, dirty and overcrowded facilities,
and long waits. This would pose greater health and safety risks and the lousy experience would discourage people from going to ANY gym.

 Gyms are businesses, so should charge whatever fees are needed to stay in business. You can buy your own exercise equipment and keep it in a spare room at home, if you want a free gym.

 How would they earn then.
Government isn't kind enough to spend our taxes more on us than prisoners.

 Who would pay for the gym's bills,light water,AC,keeping the pool clean,machines working properly,etc.SO i think paying a fee is ok!!

 Who would work there? I sure wouldn't work for free, and maintaining a business isn't cheap, where else would the money come from.

 How can the gym stay in buiness?!!

 I support the membership fees or dues, I think they are necessary for the business, to run it in a healthy, clean manner. They are also good for the consumer....I think paying to get healthy gives people more of an incentive to make use of their money and work out.

The thing I am against is the "contract fee",that initial $200 down or so that they charge you (the processing fee). I don't think that's necessary but if it is, it should be a reasonable cost.

 For the simple reason that people that aren't going now are not always the lower end people but they don't do more than binge drinking and think they have a workout that way as they have to get up go to the fridge to get a cold one and slump back in their seat so even if it could be possible they wont show up as they would sweat to much by getting to the gym the only thing free in this world is the air that we breath and if we don't watch that there might be a tax bill being made for it

 The idea of not having to pay to work out is a good one but without money they can't pay their staff, or the water bill, or for new machines or for machine repair. Like it or not money makes the world go round. Everyone wants and everybody needs. If you don't pay the gym its not going to have a lot of things done that needs to be done.

 If they abolish the fees then they wont have the money to run or to pay wages as much as we would like everything to be free they cant its not free to run. I think that perhaps they should reduce the fees by all means.

 Someone has to maintain and buy this equipment, pay power bill, rent the building. How can they do this if free? Would you work all day the rest of your life for free?

 The fees should remain but they should be covered by businesses such has health insurance as getting physically fit should reduce health problems and in turn reduce the use of insurance. Also employers should cover part of the fees again for the same reason. There would be less down time as a person would not miss near as much work. I also know some employers who do this and it has been proven to be beneficial.

If you take away the fees, then it is more likely that the gym would not be taken care of very well. Equipment would not be maintained. Diseases such as MRSA would be much more prevalent as the equipment would not be wiped down.

 There are already gyms that provide free or discount memberships for low income people. If we completely took away all gym fees there would be no money to keep enough stuff there to make it a place you would want to be. I do believe something should be done to reduce the obesity crisis there is, but I don't believe taking away all gym fees would work. If someone could make a non-profit gym, that had a steady supply of grants and other funding it might work, but short of that I think the only option for people right now is to fill out the forms they have at the YMCA or other gyms like that and see if they qualify for a membership assistance.

 You get what you pay for!

 Yeah the thing is that in order to have staff and equipment, someone has to foot the bill.

Personally, my solution was to go to the gym at my local leisure centre rather than an expensive upmarket one, so it only costs me a few pound to go for a whole day.

 Completely against, Gyms are like any other business, they are there to make money! Some do it better than others and some have better facilities than others, usually depending on how much they charge for their memberships. IMO the best solution for multiple parties involved would be to get our health insurance providers to cover a monthly gym membership or an allowance to pay for part of it. Gyms still keep their fees and related quality of the facility while most likely having a huge increase in memberships nationwide. Insurance companies could reduce the amount of claims since in theory the people attending the gyms would be healthier. Of course the people would also benefit from being healthier as well.

 Well gyms have to pay bills too. If there wasn't fees then they wouldn't have the electricity you need to power up the equipment.

 A free gym business will not survive. The people need to pay for their workers, trainers, etc. Somehow. Also, there is new equiptment out there every day, and to have the latest technology, you need money to invest, and how will the business get that money? Membership. There are plenty of memberships that are cheap, and if you want to take care of yourself, you need to cough up the dough.

 And who would pay for the equipment, maintenance and overhead for all of these gyms???

 Gyms are part of a capitalist economy. It's a business. I don't work for free (unless it's volunteer work ;). If you don't want to pay, there are lots of ways to exercise for free! Go for a run, ride your bike, use canned goods as your barbells, take a salsa class and get your sweat on! :)

 Okay this is a stupid debate, see i work at a gym, and if you dont have membership fees then what its free? Or are you talking about an enrollment fee? And if you are they have to stay because that is how we make comm.