I have heard people say:
One of the fundamental axioms of Economics is that
There is no free lunch
(Sometimes this is abbreviated as:
TANSTAFL: There Is No Such Thing As a Free Lunch,
except that the second letter, `A', is for "ain't" ....
which, through its double negative, supports the contention here.)
The phrase, `There is no free lunch' is not a fundamental axiom of economics; and it is wrong.
There are many free lunches. They arise every time a person doubles his productivity. If you work for three hours in the morning to produce lunch, and then double your efficiency to produce two lunches for the same amount of work, you have got a free lunch.
Compared to two hundred years ago, American farmers are producing many free lunches, even when taking into account the various negative externalities of modern production techniques.
A large free lunch occurred in parts of Europe in the early 1700s when people learned to build `throats' into chimneys. This created a vast improvement in the efficiency of fireplaces.
For a good introduction to the history of technology and economic development, see The Lever of Riches by Joel Mokyr.
Mokyr also discusses that pregnant science fiction topic of why the first industrial revolution failed to occur in China before it occurred in Europe.
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