Since Facebook keeps asking me what’s on my mind… Here’s a lecture on the common libertarian/conservative refrain “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” It means you can’t get something for nothing, and it is often employed to suggest that progressive taxation, income or wealth transfers, union-enforced wages and benefits, and any other “intervention” into the market amounts to shifting the costs of “laziness” from individual moochers to society at large, especially among those who work the hardest. In other words, all said policies amount to “handouts” of one sort or another that are in fact far from free. I’ve been meaning to address this argument for awhile, so here goes. 1. There are a number of ways to respond to this, but…