There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Milton Friedman? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Today many goods and services are available for free especially via the internet. However, the true cost is usually not zero. Subsidies, indirect costs, and displaced costs are sometimes difficult to fully discern. A well- known acerbic economic adage reflects a skeptical attitude: There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Lyrics may be properties of their rightful owners.
This phrase is sometimes presented as an initialism: tanstaafl. The prominent economist Milton Friedman and the famous science fiction author Robert Heinlein both employed this expression, but I do not believe that either one coined it. Would you please examine this topic? Quote Investigator: During the nineteenth and early twentieth century many saloons in the United States offered a midday buffet selection of gratis food to customers who purchased at least one drink. The saloonkeepers hoped to increase the number of clients and the amount of alcohol purchased. The “free lunch” food functioned as a loss leader. Robert Heinlein did use the expression under investigation in his 1. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress”. Also, Milton Friedman was credited with the saying by 1. But the saying was already in circulation. The earliest known instance that matched the modern economic sense appeared as the punchline of a fable published in June 1. Journalist Walter Morrow is currently the leading candidate for creator of this fable. Details are given further below within the following collection of selected citations in chronological order. In 1. 89. 2 the notable freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll employed the phrase “no free lunch” while discussing differing perceptions of heaven. SOUTH LEASIDE BOUTIQUE CONDOMINIUM! Very spacious 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite with balcony overlooking trees and gardens! Two double closets in master bedroom plus a. My daughter Bonnie is four. It is a beautiful age. She's got such a big imagination and constantly surprises me with her love of language. Word's she's enquired about. The trip was for the launch of Bonnie Rose, a new a Tennessee white corn whiskey that comes in two flavors (Orange Peel and Spiced apple). As a drinker of mostly. ![]() Ingersoll contended that one must pay to achieve happiness and to enter a hypothetical heaven. This figurative usage was precursor to the modern saying. Emphasis in excerpts added by QI: 1. People needn’t expect to go into heaven like little jugs just to be filled up and put on a shelf in one of the parlors of heaven so that they could sort of have a good time. He thought they would have a hard job trying to have a good time with the Trinity.“If we are to have happiness and a heaven we will have to work and pay for it. There is no free lunch business about getting to heaven.”In 1. The statements were presented with exaggerated Swedish accents. Here is one germane saying about free lunch followed by a restatement using conventional spelling: 2. A free lunch es not very cheap teng after all, ven von consider how many faller get poor eatin’ ’em. A free lunch is not very cheap thing after all, when one consider how many feller get poor eatin’ ’em. This adage suggested that partaking of free food did have a price. One may become a saloon habitu. Here were three of the sayings: 4. Why is it that a free lunch is never free? Why isn’t the bride well- dressed who is well groomed? ![]() Why shouldn’t a man be excused for being bigoted against bigotry? In 1. 91. 7 an article in an Oklahoma newspaper with a Chicago dateline included a close match to statement under study; however, this usage was literal and not figurative: 6. Prominent liquor men today gathered here to advocate passage of an ordinance forbidding free lunch in saloons. Michael Montague, one of the delegation, held an opposite view to the others.“There is no such thing as free lunch,” he said. Lunch is the greatest tempering influence in the saloon. If a man takes a two- ounce drink of whisky and then takes a bite of lunch, he probably does not take a second drink. Whisky taken alone creates an appetite.”In 1. San Francisco Chronicle” described a prank in an article that included an instance of the saying, but this usage was also literal not figurative. ![]() The saloon institution of the “free lunch” was now pass. Swannell of Sacramento. It was Swannell’s only traveling suit and was labeled “free lunch.” Swannell said that the person who did it wasn’t a restaurant man because there was no such thing as a free lunch. Hasn’t been for several years. Nickel beer and free lunch left at the same time, he says. In 1. 93. 6 the commentator Max Eastman explored the underpinnings of humor in his analytical work “Enjoyment of Laughter”. Eastman suggested that creatively twisting logic could produce myriad jokes: 8. Bugs Baer’s Uncle John’s argument that “you can always judge a man by what he eats and that therefore a country in which there is no free lunch is no longer a free country,” will do as an example. In June 1. 93. 8 the “El Paso Herald- Post” printed an elaborate fable about a king facing economic troubles: 9. Economics in Eight Words. Once upon a time a great and wise king ruled a populous and prosperous land. The width and breadth of his kingdom were measured in thousands of leagues. But a plague of poverty came upon that land, and no man knew its cause. There were mighty and inconclusive arguments in the halls of government, and learned graybeards in the schools advocated this remedy or that. The king, seeing that his people were starving and distressed in the midst of plenty, called his wisest counsellors from the four quarters of the kingdom. The king listened to the inconclusive disputations of his advisors and then demanded that they create a “short and simple text” on economics that he could read and understand. This would enable him to save his kingdom. Unfortunately, the advisors required a year, and the resulting opus was 8. The angry king executed half of his economic experts and again ordered the construction of a brief text on the subject. Sadly, the advisors repeatedly failed to perform this task although the document did shorten over time as the number of advisors shrank. Finally, the single surviving economist presented a concise message: “Speak on,” cried the king, and the palace guards leveled their crossbows. But the old economist rose fearlessly to his feet, stood face to face with the king, and said: “Sire, in eight words I will reveal to you all the wisdom that I have distilled through all these years from all the writings of all the economists who once practiced their science in your kingdom. Here is my text: “There ain’t no such thing as free lunch.”The above instance was the earliest known to QI in which the saying was employed as a general economic maxim. Interestingly, no attribution was provided. The fable was reprinted in other papers such as “The Pittsburgh Press” of Pennsylvania in July 1. QI found an important reprint in “Public Service Magazine” in November 1. The fable was again titled “Economics in Eight Words” and the text was very similar to other instances. Yet, this occurrence included an ascription to “Walter Morrow in the New York World- Telegram”. Based on this evidence QI would tentatively credit Morrow with this fable and its economic maxim punchline. A September 1. 93. El Paso Herald- Post” stated that Morrow was editor- in- chief of The Southwestern Group of Scripps- Howard Newspapers. The “New York World- Telegram”, “El Paso Herald- Post”, and “The Pittsburgh Press” were all Scripps- Howard newspapers in 1. In February 1. 93. Rushville, Indiana reported on a Rotary Club speech delivered by W. Loper who was a superintendent in the local public school system. Loper employed a variant with “free meal” instead of “free lunch”: 1. In passing, he stated that one thing which can’t be tolerated is too much human misery because it is fertile ground for every ism except Americanism. Children need to be taught, in addition, that there is no such thing as a free meal, the speaker continued, in order to correct some of the conditions that exist today. In 1. 94. 0 Dr. John Madden, Dean of N. Y. U. School of Business, spoke to the graduating class of North Tarrytown High School, and he used the saying: 1. I can’t tell you what the future will bring,” declared Dr. Madden, “but I can tell you that there’s no such thing as . Don’t waste your time. In 1. 94. 2 an editorial in a Corning, New York newspaper included the adage: 1. This much is certain. In all the affairs of life there’s no such thing as free lunch. Everything has to be paid for. What goes up comes down, what we sow we reap. In 1. 94. 3 “The Boston Daily Globe” attributed the expression to a Professor of Public Finance at Princeton University named Harley L. Lutz of Princeton seems to have a definition of “economics” quite different from that in Washington. He said “Economics can be boiled down to one short sentence, . The 1. 93. 8 version began with “two thousand and ten” advisors, but the 1. The unlucky advisors were dispatched with crossbows in 1. When one expert was left the king pronounced the following deadline: 1. Within one week. Trouble with this country is too many darn fools think there’s some such thing as a free lunch.”In 1. Tanstaafl: A Plan for a New Economic World Order” by Pierre Dos Utt. In June 1. 94. 9 the long- time “Chicago Tribune” columnist Arch Ward shared the following: 1. A Natural Law“What this country has to realize,” says my Aunt Minnie, “is there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” - Distant Dan. In August 1. 94. 9 a tantalizing reprint of the fable appeared in “The Star” newspaper of Port St. The introductory statement credited the tale to Jake Falstaff, the pseudonym of a columnist named Herman Fetzer whose home paper was the “Cleveland Press” in Ohio: 2. ECONOMICS IN EIGHT WORDS(Ed Note: The following editorial is based on a story by the late Jack Falstaff which appeared 1. Cleveland Press. We think the story sizes up the situation concisely.)Once upon a time a great and wise king ruled a populous and prosperous land. But a plague of poverty came upon the land, and no man knew its cause. The “Cleveland Press” was a Scripps- Howard newspaper, and as noted previously the fable appeared in multiple newspapers in that chain in 1. In addition, both Morrow and Fetzer worked for that chain. Yet, only Morrow was credited back in November 1. The situation is currently unclear. Future researchers may learn more if a 1. Cleveland Press” is unearthed.
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