what does the phrase theres no such thing as free lunch mean in economic terms
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch The phrase and the acronym are central to Robert Heinlein's 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, which helped popularize it.[2][3] The free-market economist Milton Friedman also popularized the phrase[1] by using it as the title of a 1975 book,[4] and it is used in economics literature to describe opportunity cost.[5] Campbell McConnell writes that the idea is "at the core of economics".[6]