English-speaking people often say, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” It is a well-known adage that implies “you cannot get something for nothing.” Some Koreans may take the phrase to simply mean: “If somebody invites you to lunch, he has a favor to ask and you are obliged to help him.” Such an interpretation is not completely wrong, but the maxim means more than that. The saying can also mean: “If you want something, you need to give up something else,” or “If you get something at no cost, somebody else has to pay for it.” The adage can be extended to the public sphere and interpreted as: “If you benefit from a free public good, someone has to pay taxes for it.” 

In this sense, the saying can also be related to the theory of entropy. The size of the pie is set; if you nibble at the pie continuously, others won’t be able to eat it and the pie will run out someday. When the prominent economist Milton Friedman published “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch,” he probably kept the cost of public goods in mind.

The phrase stems from a 19th-century custom that developed with American bars giving free lunches to anyone who bought a drink. But the food was so heavily salted that people could not help but order multiple beers to quench their thirst. So far from a free lunch, the meal ended up being quite costly. The lesson was once again, “Nothing is free.”

W. Somerset Maugham’s short story, “Luncheon,” well illustrates the theme. It is an account of an aspiring young writer who one day receives a letter from a woman who assures him that she is a huge fan and would like to meet him over lunch in a fancy restaurant. Not knowing the fate that awaits him, the nameless writer meets the woman at the restaurant she has suggested. She gobbles expensive food, disregarding the cost, and the poor writer ends up paying for the “luncheon.” The writer, who is broke on account of their extravagant meal, is only avenged much later. After a few years, the writer happens to see the woman again and finds that the free-lunch lover has become so fat that he almost cannot recognize her. Once again, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Perhaps there is no such thing as a free dinner either. When a man wants to date a woman, he usually invites her to a fancy, candlelight dinner. Especially in the United States, if you invite a woman to dinner, she may think that you are interested in her. When I was at UC Berkeley six years ago, a Korean friend of mine was very grateful to a kind and friendly young American woman. He told me, “She has been so nice to me and I want to return her favor. I’ll buy her a very special dinner.” “Wouldn’t it be better to take her to lunch instead?” I advised. But he was persistent. “Lunch is not enough,” he insisted. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to her by treating her to dinner at a fancy restaurant.” I was worried that she might not understand his goodwill.

Indeed, I was right. She did not come to dinner. An extremely nice and warm-hearted woman, she could not say “No,” directly to his face. Instead, she gave him a vague answer, “Thank you, but I might be busy that evening.” He took her equivocal response as a “yes,” and went to pick her up at her office on the evening of the dinner. But she was not there. Her colleague told him that she had said she was not feeling well and had gone home a little earlier than usual. Obviously, she did not understand the Korean man’s goodwill and came up with an excuse to avoid the awkward situation. Since having dinner together may mark interest in a serious relationship, women (or men) may think, “There is no such thing as a free dinner.”

Metaphorically speaking, many Koreans tend to expect a free lunch or a free dinner often, without caring about the costs someone else must pay. Indeed, we are so used to free benefits that we often forget to appreciate the people who provide them. But we should realize that we can only enjoy free goods at the cost of others. Then we can stop antagonizing each other and learn to appreciate others. When we realize it, we may be able to put an end to the age-old family feud between haves and have-nots, or the privileged and the underprivileged. We should also be grateful to other countries for the invaluable help they provide us in times of crisis. We should not take such goods for granted, or simply demand them as if we are entitled. There is no such thing as a free lunch or dinner. Someone always has to pay for it.

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon, a professor of English at Seoul National University, is editor of the literary quarterly “21st Century Literature.” ― Ed.