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The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a
by minikites 11y ago
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
- gammarator 11y agoBarbara Erenreich's book "Nickled and Dimed" [1] is a good illustration of how lack of cash forces the working poor to make economically sub-optimal choices. An example will suffice: without the savings needed to put down a security deposit for an apartment, you are forced to leave in cheap motels (absent options like living with others or in a shelter), even though the monthly rate is higher. There's no kitchen in those motels and you may be working multiple jobs, which limits your ability to cook nutritious food and eat cheaply. And the cycle continues. Some of the stories in George Packer's "The Unwinding" [2] emphasize how narrow the margin of error is. Everyone makes poor choices from time to time; those with resources (financial & social) can weather them. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/03... [2] http://www.amazon.com/Unwinding-Inner-History-New-America/dp/0374534608/ http://www.amazon.com/Unwinding-Inner-History-New-America/dp...
- yummyfajitas 11y agoAnd Scratch Beginning by Adam Shepard is a good illustration of how a hard working person can work his way from homeless to middle class in under a year. http://amzn.to/1RZZHhf http://amzn.to/1RZZHhf There are apparently good choices and bad - Erenreich illustrates how making the bad choices keeps you poor, while Shepard illustrates how making the good choices can you out of poverty.
- tamana 11y agoIndeed, being young, male, healthy, educated, and white is a great way to bootstrap out of poverty.
- FussyZeus 11y agoThis is an excellent point. Another one in a similar vein is things like appliances or other big ticket purchases. The wealthy (or even middle class really, assuming any are left) is that they can buy a new washing machine for example when they're on sale. The poor essentially need to keep using the same washing machine until it dies, at which point either they need to go to the laundromat or buy a new one, and they have to get whatever one Home Depot has at the time at whatever price they're marked at.
- kspaans 11y agoHow much risk-adjusted-reward is there in loaning Vimes money for the boots? Or in loaning him money for an annual bus pass that saves him 10% over a monthly bus pass?