What You Need to Know About The Free Lunch

It’s not the search for the Holy Grail man has obsessed with over the centuries, it’s the search for the free lunch — the idea you can have your cake and eat it too, weight loss without exercise or diet changes, get rich quick, and so on. This error infects politicians, science, economists, and now, even the church.

Unfortunately, reality always wins, as the illusion of the free lunch (something for nothing) crashes and burns like a 747 running out of fuel at 35,000 feet. It’s not going to end well.

The Economic Free Lunch

Keynesian economics in one sentence: You (and everyone else) can have a free lunch (stimulus and deficit spending), and nobody ever has to pay for it (or it’s paid for by someone else).

Imagine your personal finances — you earn $2,000 per month, but spend $3,000, something you’ve been doing for years. How long would the bank allow you to do that? Suppose the bank called you on it, and you replied “Sure, next month I’ll only spend $2,900”. Only insane people would do such a thing … or those deluded into thinking a free lunch exists.

The reason people believe the free lunch fails for personal finances, but does work for the Federal Government comes from a bizarre belief government can violate the law of free lunches (well, that and the government’s ability to print money, but that doesn’t end well either — see Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe, Quantitative Easing, etc).

There is no free lunch, or to paraphrase Margret Thatcher — “Socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money”.

The “Green” Engineering Free Lunch

Way back during the energy-crunch 1970’s, a building company in Southern California (Presley Company) got involved in a machine which split water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen, with the promise of continuous, free, clean, green, energy — the goracle would be proud.

Presley’s stock soared from $6 to $20 … before the SEC halted trading. You see, the device only had one problem — it promised the elusive free lunch.

A Newport Beach home builder’s fascination with a “hydrogen converter,” which he believed would produce an endless supply of cheap power during the energy crisis in the mid-1970s, ended up costing the Presley Cos. $4.4 million and years of embarrassment.

… a battery of scientific tests, including some paid for by The Times, found that although the patented device produced hydrogen gas from tap water by relying on chemical reactions, it apparently did not produce more energy than it consumed, as promised.

Splitting water (H₂O) atoms into oxygen and hydrogen isn’t really a big deal, the problem is entropy — any engineering or mechanical process is always less than 100% efficient. Simply put, the device did work, it just cost more in electricity to use than than the hydrogen provided!

Any physicist would quickly spot the problem, as…

…there is no free lunch — entropy always wins.

The Christian Free Lunch

The heresy of social justice and the church as the common good use something similar: a free lunch exists (paid by someone else), as long as the church lobbies government to do what Christians should do: charity.

Fantastic … using social justice you can be charitable while keeping your big-screen TV and Lexus! See, a free lunch exists!

But then reality strikes: those promoting social justice use it to ease their conscience by stealing from someone else to redistribute, deceiving themselves into believing they’re being “charitable”.

Not charitable, just deceptive, greedy, and coveting their neighbors possessions.

It’s ironic when social justice gets what it wants they don’t like it, for social justice boils down to greed — wanting what someone else has (even if it’s to redistribute to someone else as “charity”). As long as it’s someone else’s possessions being redistributed through social justice, that’s great … but hands off my stuff!

It’s Not Biblical

You’ll never find social justice in the Bible — the idea Christians should lobby the government to forcefully take from one person and give to another. Charity is your job, taking care of the needy is your job.

Those promoting radical social justice as a Biblical idea are heretics. Strong language, but the deception contains nothing more than poisonous radical political ideology wrapped in a thin candy shell hoping people swallow the candy without noticing the poison.

Ask social justice promoters where Jesus, Paul, or any of the apostles spoke of forced income or property redistribution via a secular government and you’ll be met with a blank stare — they know it’s not Biblical, thus heretical (by definition).

There is no free lunch, it remains your responsibility to help those in need.

Another Christian Free Lunch

Too many Christians sit in pews week after month believing it’s the pastors job to advise them, counsel them, and handle problems. Sadly, those pew-warmers end up in deep doggy-do-do when they get that 3AM phone call … and have no idea how to handle it.

At 3AM, you’ve got what you’ve got, and if you’re unprepared because you think your pastor will bail you out you’ll be crushed when reality strikes — as it always will. It’s your job to know the Bible, it’s your job to practice with the armor of God, it’s your job to make application to your life.

There is no free lunch — nope, this one won’t work either.

No Free Lunch… Ever

You might be familiar with the three laws of thermodynamics, paraphrased as:

  1. You can’t win.
  2. You can’t even break even.
  3. You can’t get out of the game.

The laws of physics prove there is no free lunch.

Reality always wins, which is why socialism always fails — no matter if it’s a government (Keynesian economics), or the church (social justice), or engineering (perpetual motion machines).

There is no free lunch — don’t be a reality-denier.

Filed Under: Politics

Recommended Citation:
Yeager, Darrin "What You Need to Know About The Free Lunch" (2023-11-23 14:45),
https://www.dyeager.org/post/what-you-need-to-know-about-a-free-lunch.html
Copyright 1998–2023. All rights reserved.

Copyright ©Frames of Reference LLC 1998–2023

https://www.dyeager.org/post/what-you-need-to-know-about-a-free-lunch.html