CLIL - There’s no Such Thing as a Free Lunch

ECoNomIA CLIL - There s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch CLIL - THERE S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH 313 AUDIO There s no such thing as a free lunch is an expression that conveys the idea that things which look free actually have a cost, and that nothing in life is really free of charge. This expression is meant to describe the cost of decision-making and consumption. In fact, it is important to consider this idea when making various types of evaluations, whether they are financial or related to lifestyle. The concept can help consumers to make wiser decisions, by considering all the indirect and direct costs. The concept is thought to have originated in 19th-century American saloons, where sometimes customers were given free lunches if they ordered drinks. It is clear that there should be a cost associated with a free lunch: the purchase of a drink. Since the lunches were very salty, customers were enticed to order more drinks. So the saloons purposely offered free lunches with the expectation that they would generate enough revenue from additional drinks to compensate for the cost of the food. The free-market economist Milton Friedman increased the popularity of this expression using it as the title of a 1975 essay, and employing it to describe opportunity cost. Friedman was a US economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilisation policy. 1. Answer the following questions. 1. Is there such a thing as free lunch? Why? 2. What does this principle mean? 3. In what way did milton Friedman use the expression? 4. Do you know an example of free lunch in your daily life?