Page "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" Paragraph 4

According to Robert Caro, Fiorello La Guardia, on becoming mayor of New York in 1934, said " È finita la cuccagna!

", meaning " No more free lunch "; in this context " free lunch " refers to graft and corruption.

The earliest known occurrence of the full phrase, in the form " There ain't no such thing as free lunch ", appears as the punchline of a joke related in an article in the El Paso Herald-Post of June 27, 1938, entitled " Economics in Eight Words ".

In 1945, " There ain't no such thing as a free lunch " appeared in the Columbia Law Review, and " there is no free lunch " appeared in a 1942 article in the Oelwein Daily Register ( in a quote attributed to economist Harley L. Lutz ) and in a 1947 column by economist Merryle S. Rukeyser.