Summary: 19th Century American bars would often times offer a “free lunch” as an attempt to entice drinking customers in to their establishments. The catch was that patrons usually had to purchase at least one drink, and often times the foods served were high in salt content, thus leading to more thirst and higher beer sales. In response, economists of the era created there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Wildland fire has its own version of the free lunch.
