Economics made easy

The amazing freebie economy

18 November 2006

It was Robert Heinlein, the libertarian science-fiction writer, who famously coined the adage ‘There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch’ —Tanstaafl for short — in his 1966 cult classic, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. If something appears to be available free, Heinlein argued, the cost is always picked up by someone, even if it is hidden or distributed among a large number of people.

Tanstaafl is one of the most important laws of economics, and it remains as true today as it ever was. But even though someone always has to pick up the bill, powerful economic and technological forces mean that it doesn’t always feel that way to consumers, who have increasingly come to expect something for nothing.

From free newspapers to free telephone calls, the public is being showered with goods and information for which, apparently, it is not being asked to pay a penny. We live in an amazing freebie economy in which advanced capitalism is beginning to fulfil one of the key demands of Karl Marx’s 1875 Critique of the Gotha Programme, ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need’.

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