Poppycock. That is such a cliche. Okay so there is no 'free lunch'. Right lemme give you a list.
Poland.
Latvia
Slovakia
Romania
Bulgaria
Since early 2003 these basket cases are not only having
free lunches but they are eating
cakes as well. Do you know the amount of subsidy that EU has pumped into theses countries? It runs into $100s of billions. In adddition the citizens of these countries have been allowed without any visa or entry restrictions to get millions of jobs inside EU at full EU rates.
The general idea is to lift these underdeveloped Eastern European states to the same level as Western Europe with Germany, France and UK foting the bill. Why did they do this? One South Asian migrant arrives and they have cops searching for him. The reason is strategic. Western Europe needs to bring Eastern Europe within it's orbit and wider NATO bulwark.
Going back to post WW2 United States launched the massive Marshall PLan to lift Western Europe up from the bootstraps. Again $10s of billions was transferred to get Western Europe up after the destruction of WW2. So countries do employ economic devices as part of their strategic objectives.
And talking of free lunches even the
rich get lunches on the house with cakes thrown in. Which country is the largest recipient of US aid every year? Some poor African country maybe? Nah,
Israel. Go figure. Geopolitics at play?
Talking of lunches- - do you like Greek food? Well here have a look at cost of free Greek lunch. Yes,
$206 billion., think about that. That easily four times more then CPEC and iven to a country - Greece that has smaller population than New Delhi. The fact is if you have rich and powerful friends then 'free lunches' do happen.
@Genesis