2007-05-18 15:02:13 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
It means you can't get something for nothing. There is a price to be paid even if it's not you that's paying the price.
Using a literal example of this phrase if you got a free lunch at a diner it still cost the diner money to give you this lunch. They had to pay for the ingredients, pay the cook, pay the server, the cost of the gas to cook the food, the electricity to run the lights and air conditioning. So it wasn't free.
Or maybe somebody else paid for you, so the net cost to you is nothing but somebody did have to pay for it.
The idea is nothing in this world is truly free.
2007-05-18 15:22:55 · answer #1 · answered by JavaJoe 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It means that even if something appears to be free, you are actually paying for it in some way. Here is where it came from...
"The phrase free lunch, in U. S. literature from about 1870 to 1920, and in the currently popular proverb "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch," refers to a tradition once common in saloons in many places in the United States. These establishments offered "free" lunches, varying from rudimentary to quite elaborate, with the requirement that the partaker purchase at least one drink.
Many writers agree that these free lunches were typically worth far more than the price of a single drink. The saloon-keeper relied on the expectation that most customers would buy more than one drink, and that the practice would build patronage for other times of day.
The saying "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" refers to this custom in a back-handed way, meaning that free things often have hidden costs.
2007-05-18 17:09:57 · answer #2 · answered by Mimii 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Basically it means that all consumption draws upon a finite pool of goods and services.
The free lunch example essentially means that someone has to pay for any product or service that is consumed, either in terms of a cost of production, or indeed an opportunity cost for how such resources could have been applied elsewhere.
Thus, even though a lunch may be free to you, someone somewhere is paying for it.
2007-05-18 16:40:54 · answer #3 · answered by smallbof 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it means that everything is, in some way shape or form, going to be paid for. Litterally, there is no such thing as a free lunch. People ALWAYS want something in return.
2007-05-18 15:05:45 · answer #4 · answered by man of questions 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even if someone else pays for the lunch, there's usually a catch:
They want to pick your brain about a certain idea/topic
They want to use the lunch hour as a sales pitch time
They're paying you back for something you already did
They want your help with something
Beware of "free lunches" - don't turn them all down, but just be ready for the other shoe to drop.
2007-05-19 03:16:26 · answer #5 · answered by Dave 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It signifies that once you get a loose lunch from college or the position ever and do not ought to pay for it, someone nevertheless has to make it which fee money to purchase the supplies which incorporates the sandwich and different aspect dishes you've were given.
2016-11-04 09:48:58 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Someone is always paying, it just may not be you. For example, the taxpayers pay for the free lunch for the school kids.
2007-05-18 15:05:28 · answer #7 · answered by mel s 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with the answers. Nothing in life worth anything is free.
2007-05-18 15:49:57 · answer #8 · answered by millineumlaura 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means nothing is for free. Be it money or otherwise there is always a price to pay.
2007-05-18 15:07:18 · answer #9 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there is always a price to pay no matter what the offer. nothing is ever free, but it's called that to get you intersted before hitting you with the real cost.
2007-05-18 15:05:46 · answer #10 · answered by de bossy one 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋