I’m starting this blog with a bit of history. In the 19th century there was a practice in American bars of offering a “free lunch” in order to entice drinking customers.
The customer would need to buy just one drink to get a free lunch. It was a tempting offer, but the lunch that was provided tended to be cheap and included high-salt foods, and the customer would go on to spend more money on beer.
The concept went on to become an economic buzz phrase for ‘opportunity cost’ – what you could have bought if you hadn’t spent your money on something else. Economist Milton Friedman even titled a book “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”.
