Pascal Schmidt wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 PS> Hi Roy! :-)

 RJT> "Economists like to say that `there ain't no such thing as a free 
 RJT> lunch'.  The expression,  popularized by University of Chicago 
 RJT> economist Milton Friedman but dating back to at least 1949, is 
 RJT> shorthand for saying tha tnothing comes without a price."

 PS> [...]

 RJT> I *knew* it went back further than the Heinlein book...

 PS> Interesting. But it may still have entered the hacker culture via
 PS> Heinlein.

Probably.

 PS> I can't imagine hackers taking vocabulary from economists. ;)

Yeah,  it does seem to be a bit unlikely.  Stranger things have happened, 
though...   :-)

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