A key tenet of capitalism is that there is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Even literal free lunches, which church groups dispense to homeless people, must be subsidized by money-earning workers, who have to purchase their own midday meals as well as someone else’s. When the food seems free, it just means the costs are hidden.
Even those of us who object to capitalism must accept the No Free Lunch principle. Plucking fruit from a wild apple tree might seem like a free lunch, but it isn’t. The labor in that scenario is low-cost, but free would be if an apple materialized in your mouth, pre-chewed. When you gather fruit from a wild orchard, the low energy output returns a low gain. Four apples is not a good lunch!
This is all just cause and effect, but it’s very unpleasant. We want the free lunch. We are both wired and socialized to find free lunch desirable. It’s not bad to pine for a zero-dollar footlong sandwich instead of Subway’s famous fiver. At least, it’s not bad until you start scheming.
Scheming leads nowhere. Work is the only tactic with a reliable payoff. I am very disappointed by the whole setup.