The economic theory, and also the lay opinion, that whatever goods and services are provided, they must be paid for by someone – that is, you don’t get something for nothing. The phrase is also known by the acronym of ‘there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch’ – tanstaafl.

Before discussing the origin of ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ it would be useful to go back to the days in which lunches were free. Free lunch was a commonplace term in the USA and, to a lesser extent in Britain, from the mid 19th century onward. It wasn’t used to describe handouts of food to the poor and hungry though, it denoted the free food that American saloon keepers used to attract drinkers; for example, this advertisement for a Milwaukee saloon, in The Commercial Advertiser, June 1850:

At The Crescent…
Can be found the choicest of Segars, Wines and Liquors…
N. B. – A free lunch every day at 11 o’clock will be served up.