This is one from the archives of Brand Quest, which I used to compile while at BL:
This expression, which later became a popular economic phrase, courtesy a Nobel Prize winner, appeared in Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. And though the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations mentions the authorship as anonymous, the idea behind the phrase is said to have originated from the deceptive tactic that some 19th Century American bars used in order to draw customers. What's the phrase?
5 comments:
free lunch!
couldnt have guessed if you hadnt mentioned the bit about american bars.
u have hit the nail on its head!
This was the full answer: 'There is no such thing as a free lunch'; the economist is Milton Friedman, who wrote a book in 1975 with this phrase as the title. The bars used to provide free lunch to customers who bought a certain quantity of drinks. The customers later realised that the amount that they paid on drinks compensated the lunch cost, and it was really not free.
FYI:
Heinlen used to call it the TANTFL (there aint no thing like a free lunch) principle.
Nice one, thanks Jaideep!
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