Economists everywhere know that saying (although it was popularized by science fiction writer Robert Heinlein if memory serves). There’s no such thing as a free lunch means resources must be used to produce that lunch — and every other economic good in existence.
But I was taken aback today by learning how expensive lunches can really be. The headline was that lunch with Tim Geithner went for $50,000 at a charity auction. Which made me wonder how much other celebrities were worth on the lunch circuit.
Complete citations for the table below are at the end of this piece. Remember you read it here first.
| Date | Name | Price | Note |
| 6/8/13 | Warren Buffett | $1,000,100 | Lunch |
| 5/14/13 | Tim Cook | $610,000 | Lunch |
| 6/7/14 | Warren Buffett and See’s Candy | $156,000 | All you can eat tour plus meet Buffett |
| 6/7/14 | Rafael Nadal | $150,000 | Tennis lesson |
| 6/11/13 | Marissa Mayer | $110,000 | Power lunch at Yahoo hq |
| 6/11/13 | Bill Clinton | $110,000 | Dinner for four |
| 6/11/13 | Bruce Springsteen | $72,500 | Meet plus two backstage passes |
| 5/13/14 | Ben Bernanke | $70,500 | Lunch |
| 5/13/14 | Katy Perry | $66,000 | Meet plus concert |
| 5/13/14 | Timothy Geithner | $50,000 | Lunch |
| 5/14/13 | Elon Musk | $42,500 | Tour of SpaceX |
| 5/14/13 | Peyton Manning | $25,000 | One day in training camp |
| 5/14/13 | Robin Williams | $15,000 | Lunch on the set of new movie |
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/08/investing/buffett-charity-lunch-auction-winner/
https://www.looktothestars.org/news/10192-tim-cook-auction-closes-with-610000-bid-brings-rfk-center-auction-total-to-11-million
https://www.looktothestars.org/news/11325-the-top-25-celebrity-charity-auctions-of-2013
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/13/investing/bernanke-geithner-lunch-auction/index.html
