Also often misattributed to Robert A. Heinlein because both helped popularize the expression – Friedman with a book with that title. The phrase actually dates to at least the 1930s.
Misattributed
as quoted by [Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books, 1988, 0-553-34614-8, 129]
Source: Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988), Chapter 5, “Statistics, Trade-Offs, and Society” (p. 147)
“The free lunch is the essence of modern liberalism.”
2010s, 2013, Obamacare laid bare (2013)
“Lunch special 8.99, kids eat free……. shit.”
From Viva La Bam
Alan Guth and Paul Steinhardt, The inflationary universe, edited by [Paul Davies, The New Physics, Cambridge University Press, 1992, 0-521-43831-4, 54]
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
Part II, Chapter 6, Unemployment and Inflation, p. 137
The Death of Economics (1994)
“Take an Indian home to lunch.”
When asked how the USA should celebrate the Bicentennial, as quoted in Avant Garde magazine (March 1968)
