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From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Free lunches
Message-ID: <1759@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Oct-85 22:05:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1759
Posted: Tue Oct 15 22:05:25 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Oct-85 05:49:34 EDT
References: <8509171814.AA23399@ucbopal.Berkeley.Edu> <1803@psuvax1.UUCP> <149@l5.uucp> <1712@dciem.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Organization: Cult of Heinlein, Waterloo Chapter
Lines: 40
Summary: 

In article <1712@dciem.UUCP> mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) writes:
>We all live for free.  We obtain energy from the Sun (free), and all
>we make or do is based on how we use the degradation of this energy
>into heat (barring a little energy from nuclear fission).  Anything
>we do with out physical bodies is based on this "free lunch."  If we
>can't get enough energy, we can't do much.
>
>We organize.  That is free.  By organizing, we can make better use of
>all this free energy that the Sun gives us.  We can extract energy deposited
>millions of years ago, and use it to gather rocks that can be converted
>into metals.  It's free, if you can induce people to work together and
>help you.
>
>Why do you say "There's no such thing as a free lunch?"  Do you imply
>that if I want to improve my circumstances in one respect, I must reduce
>them equally (or more) in another respect?  That can't be true, for there
>would be NO material wealth if that were the case.  Do you imply that I
>must expend effort to get what I want?  Fine, but that effort represents
>energy I acquired free, by eating lunch.  Do you mean money? Ah... there's
>the rub.

No doubt, many people who use that expression (TANSTAAFL) are thinking
purely in terms of money.  I prefer to think of economics in different
terms.

There's always some effort expended in acquiring our food, even if it
is only reaching up and picking an apple off a low branch.  More
commonly, somebody else picks the apple (while standing on a ladder
that somebody else built), somebody else ships the apple to the city,
somebody stacks it on the supermarket shelf, and you generally have to
go out of your way to get to that supermarket.  It's a mistake to
assume, just because the energy for the effort comes for free from the
sun, that effort is free.  Energy is not the only thing effort
consumes.  It also consumes time.  Your time is a non-renewable
resource.  (As with oil, the best you can hope for is to develop better
"methods of extraction".)
-- 
David Canzi

"Time's the only real wealth you have got" -- The Moody Blues, 22000 Days