Is picking apples for free?

Wednesday, 08 February 2023

 Recently, a sign along the way invited me to pick apples for free (unfortunately, it was winter, so no apples).

That made me think of an interesting economic consideration. The core of the consideration can be found in the following saying: "There's no such thing as a free lunch."

You might think the saying can’t be true since it doesn't cost anything to take a fruit from a tree and eat it (at least not if you don't call the picking work and the tree grows wild, so it doesn't need to be cultivated).

But the saying is true anyway.  

Here is why.

In economics literature, the "free lunch" refers to the idea of opportunity costs.

Here is the definition: The opportunity cost of a particular activity is the value or benefit given up by engaging in that activity, relative to engaging in an alternative activity. 

This means that if you choose one activity (for example, picking and eating an apple), you are giving up the opportunity to do something different (for example, eating something else or continuing walking without a break). 

In that sense, there can never be such a thing as a free lunch. Every decision and every action causes costs in the sense that another action cannot be carried out.

What only sounds like a theoretical consideration has practical consequences.

For example, if you arrive at your destination after a long hike and you find a single restaurant there, you will be thrilled that you can stop there.

If there are two or more restaurants at the destination, you must decide which one to stop at. Opportunity costs arise automatically. Whichever restaurant you choose, you cannot stop at the other (well, you can, but it doesn't make sense, does it?). The stay may not give you the same satisfaction, at least not when you think about what it would have been like in the other restaurant.

Lesson? Less can be more.

Onwards, 

The Strolling Economist

PS: The "free lunch" in the saying initially refers to the formerly common practice in American bars of offering a "free lunch" to entice drinking customers.