Is There Really No Such Thing as a Free Gift?

If you understand the expression “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” congratulations! You have already mastered a classic of modern French deconstruction philosophy, Jacques Derrida's essay on gift giving, Given Time. If understanding deconstruction has not been on your bucket list, you only need to know that Derrida denies the possibility of giving a gift for the same reason that we say there is no such thing as a free lunch. Because, Derrida says, no gift is ever free. It is always part of an exchange, a complex balance between what we consider to be owed to each other. Derrida says that a gift is never truly a gift, not something freely given, because the giver always wants something in return, just like the person inviting you to lunch.