A good lesson to learn from the "Great Recession".
I’m really surprised that I haven’t written about the proverb “There is no free lunch” sooner.
I’m interested in economics, and this proverb often comes up in economic discussions. I’m grateful to a reader who brought this up in the comment section of “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
Actually, this is a shortened version of “There is no free lunch, somebody has to pay.”
The term “free lunch” has its roots in the 1800s in saloons, where patrons were offered a “free” lunch, but to get that lunch, the purchase of a drink was mandatory.
Since the proprietor of the salon has to make a profit, you can rest assured that the cost of the drink more than amply covered the cost of the free food. Otherwise he’d became bankrupt, right?
I’m not a big fan of all the deficit spending that is taking place in Washington D.C. The idea is to get the economy out of a recession, but it isn’t really producing any new jobs, and future generations will be left paying the bill.
Actually, China is taking on much of our debt with the purchase of American Treasury bills!
“There is no free lunch” means that even though something has the appearance of being free, in reality there is always a cost even though that cost may be hidden.
Does Chinese have an equivalent proverb?
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