Why There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

OP-ED: Why there’s no such thing as a free lunch

By Pennsylvania State Rep. Tim Twardzik (R-Schuylkill)

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is slow to start this session, much to the disappointment of my fellow Schuylkill County representatives whom you have sent to Harrisburg to serve. The 2022 gerrymandered district maps, implemented through a faulty process, were praised as fair. They have been shown to be anything but and they have shifted the majority and created a stalemate – not good governance.
It remains my agenda to serve the fine people of the 123rd district by supporting constitutional amendments to ensure election integrity and regulatory reform to end excessive overburdening by government agencies. I intend to reintroduce my fire blight registration law that continues the vital work of improving our neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, there has been much commotion over the Republicans withholding an additional $2,000 stimulus check offered by former Governor Tom Wolf. This year-end announcement for extra money was just an empty wish list promise. Neither I nor any of my colleagues have had a chance to vote on giving another stimulus check, and blaming Republicans is flat out wrong and unfair. (This story sounds familiar — a bit like a pledge of Biden’s student loan forgiveness.)

Last year I voted on a budget that spent heavily to help the state and you as we continued our recovery from the pandemic. That budget also saved a lot of money, bringing Pennsylvania’s Rainy Day Fund to more than $5 billion. I will continue to be a good steward of your tax money.

I realize that inflation has made this a more expensive and difficult winter. While another stimulus check would be very welcome for your wallet and household budget, there’s no such thing as a “free lunch.” Our current high inflation is the result of too much money chasing too few goods and we cannot “give away” to inflation.

I’d like to share the following article titled “Why There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch,” which succinctly explains that free money isn’t free. The dog-eared item was a favorite of my father’s that he would share with employees, family, and friends. It is a short, smart and relevant explanation. (My apologies for not being able to locate the original source of this article.)

“A natural part of human nature, it seems, is the unquenchable desire to get something for nothing. Unfortunately, the world was not made to satisfy human desire. For example, three quarters of it is covered with water – and humans have no gills.

The only way around this dilemma is to grow up – grow up enough to separate our “wants” from the facts, and then live productively with those facts.

For example, the fact that prevents the existence of the free lunch is that nothing in our material world comes out of nowhere or disappears into nothingness since our economic life is based on material things, each is assigned a value based on the source of the material, the effort required to make it more usable, and the transportation required to get it to its destination. This value is the cost that must be paid to get it to its destination. The value is the price to be paid – whether it’s lunch or a moon rock.

The fact that you don’t pay for lunch doesn’t make it free. Someone foots the bill – which is why government spending is as fake as free lunches. The government is never a source of material goods. Everything that is produced is produced by people – and everything that the government gives to the people, it must first take from them.

The only product-created money that the government can spend is the money that is taxed or borrowed from the people’s income. When the government decides to spend more than it takes in in this way, the extra unearned money has to be created out of thin air through the printing press. When this kind of money is spent, it only gains value by reducing the value of all money earned, savings and insurance.

This devaluation is called inflation and it is the bill we all pay if we allow the government to sell us the myth of the free lunch.”