>>Don't tell me he meant „there's no free lunch“ - if he did, he would said exactly so.
>
>Read the book, this is faster to me. The example there where restaurants in Frisco that offered "Free Lunch", but to buy a drink was mandatory. You understand the system?

Our old proverb says „[when] there's no bridge toll, you pay the crossing“.
And I did re-read the book a few years ago, when I went through all of RAH that I could find. The „TNFL“ would have suited the story better, so I still wonder why the old fox went for this roundabout wording.

>OTOH. One could read it like there is a coast all the time. If not direct, then elsewhere. If you take an apple from a tree in the wild, there is no monetary compensation. But it's missing in the system, so somebody / something will "pay" for it.
>
>For "free" services by A to Z you pay with your input data. If there is no point three pages deep written in FEFEFE on FFFFFF where you agree that your pwnd and owe your entire soul.

Ah, the harvesters' bread has seven crusts. I not only leave them on first sign of trying to pull that kind of job on me, but also any questionnaire, when I notice a targeted/biased question. I'm very fast on ctrl+w. As for telepeddlers, who call to say „we are offering free...“ I immediately reply with „good for you! Have a nice day.“ and slam the handle down.

Here's an excerpt which from the article which will appear in october 2025 (autobyography, see link in signature):

On the boardwalk some girlies, all of the same shape, in banana yellow tights and white t-shirts with an unclear logo below their tits, discretely hit the walkers. One holds a largish tablet, I'd say about ten inch, and the other can speak. She asks me „do you consume tobacco products?“. „No, I do no such thing, I smoke!“. This is where I completely devastated her script, that kind of response was not predicted at all, so she turned away and went for the next guy.