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#GNUTerryPratchett

I love Terry Pratchett. Guards Guards and Going Postal are my favs.

It's a great example. However, it is a simplification. The mucky reality is plenty of stuff is expensive to buy and cheaply made too.

It's been proven over and over again that the poor pay more. Just check the same item grocery prices in poor neighbourhoods and wealthy ones.

I cite this all the time. Pterry was brilliant.

This is excellent! And true.

Exactly! I think of this when I’m trying to save up my Penny’s to buy the nicer item that will last but unfortunately I can’t always afford to wait and I am not even close to being the poorest on this country.

I'm for it! It would reduce overhead costs of all the people making sure others qualify for individual programs, reduce crime, give people more choice on where they want to work which will better working conditions & more. Believe it or not I even heard Nancy pelosi say maybe it's time for Ubi once.

Maartje wrote: "Waaaah, someone had a different opinion than I do! They need to read like me!" Read the entirety of the Discworld novels. You will find Vimes is a notorious cheapskate based entirely on his own hardscrabble background.

No, that's a separate argument he has with himself. The "boots theory" is actually part of the "theory of unequal returns" that is talked about in other places.

This is exactly true.. I know from experience

No one makes those ten year boots anymore.

Uh oh

🎯💔✊🏻

Truth right there!

It is expensive to be poor.

This is truly Brilliant!

Interesting … is it better to to have a steady client base of people who regularly need boots or sell 1 pair every 10 years ?

Now, everything expensive or cheap is made in China and only lasts a year.

It is so true. I am fortunate enough to have a pair of boots that cost in excess of £100 around 25 years ago - an accumulation of saving up and birthday money. The same boots cost almost £300 today, but I don't need them as mine are still going. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to replace them now.

Thanks for sharing. I've this posted many times. It's interesting people think this is an insightful excerpt. As a starving Artist for 25 years, it's clear as day how expensive it is to be poor.

I love it, but it's important to remember that the cow who was skinned for the leather boots lost everything against her will. She is the real victim of the welthy's avarice.

Meanwhile in reality we have even expensive things that are designed to only last so long due to planned obsolescence. It's simple economics, keep the poor in poverty by giving them the shittiest options while driving the middle class down with shitty mid tier products.

Pity there was no PayPal buy in 3 or klarna ditto. It’s very useful.

The credit system provides opportunity for this. If your credit score is not good enough they charge you more. Wouldn’t it make more sense to charge the people that are more likely to be able to pay it , more?

Grandfather always said "poor people need to buy expensive as you can't afford to keep buying it over and over"

"... have wet feet. "This was the Captain Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness." 4/4

Oh good, Get Alt Text does work on this after all, thanks you

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Sir Terry was as inciteful an author as there ever was. Still re-read his stuff after all these years

Insurance is a big one. Rich people don't buy insurance, they don't need it.

I think of this every time I'm in Costco. How much cheaper it is to buy things in large quantities IF you have the money for the large quantity. Yes,30 rolls of tp is cheaper by volume, than that 4 pack from Dollar Tree...but you've gotta have $21 instead of $2.50 🫤

That’s the theory I had growing up. The saving grace for our family is that people would donate clothes.

And the quote is saying that some people never have enough money to do that.

Now do this with health and self care...

It’s very expensive to be poor.

Another reason I love Sam Vimes and Terry Pratchett.

Same of those stores, rent to own, pay monthly. In the end they end up paying three times what it would normally have cost.

ATM overage fees

My son’s favourite quote in regards to economic disparity.

Adapted from The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist (which in turn is likely adapted from an earlier description)

TRUE

And your quality of life sucks because you always hurt and get pneumonia from constant wet feet and easily catch cold which as the years go by changes to bronchitis, then pneumonia, and because you're sick all the time, you die 30+ years younger than the scum who profit obscenely from work you do

Why are we still blindly following the capitalist model of economics when there are a plethora of other fairer viable options available? Are we that dim?

So broke they can’t pay attention.

🤣 Cordwainers have a choice that city folk don't have. Self-reliance. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwai...

I’ve oven thought about these boots for decades, it just stuck with me…god I miss Terry Pratchett

Thank you. My bad. Too late to edit but I'll reply with the same.

I was literally thinking about this when I woke up this morning, I have weird dreams

Love Terry Pratchett's books. He is missed.

While the poor end of this is still true, I find with increasing frequency that whenever I pay extra to receive a "luxury", "top of the line", or "industry-leading" product, I get something that is made with the same crappy quality as the cheap option, that isn't better in any way except appearance.

That is the actual truth of being a not-so-well-off person!

Became a bit irrelevant when industry figured out how to plan obsolescence...Your tesla won't last any longer than your toyota...probably less even...

I've always been fascinated this as, theoretically there's a point where a medium priced pair of boots that's replaced after x years would possibly still be cheaper than an expensive pair of boots that's replaced after y years

Best explanation of life when paying "poor tax" on everything.

Yes, the whole idea of value in product, totally undermined by Milton Friedman and the University of Chicago ECO thugs changing the purpose of production to max profit at the expense of quality.

Similar: only people who have money can afford to buy groceries or other items priced, eg, 4 for $5. Poor people just can afford 1 item, for $2, even if it's more expensive that way.

It's in no way equal though and most of the time, the employee has no other choice than to accept the terms.

Born rich liars like Trump and Musk con other people into giving them money to build their businesses with. Selfishly exploiting unearned-privilege for corrupt power isn’t meritorious. In the US, birth ZIP Code better predicts material outcomes than talent or hard work.

I agree and I only post it because it's gotten to such an egregious level at this point in regards to the division of any rewards. We have the top 10% owning 93% of the stock market today and from 2019-2021 the top 1% got 63% of all new wealth created worldwide. It's just not sustainable.

That’s still capital that would need to be repaid. I agree with the exploitation statement. I think those business owners lose sight of the value they are delivering and just want to think only about profits

Well made, expensive boots will be better after 10 years than cheap boots were at the start is the point.

A similar story had been going in my family for generations, about my poor great great grandfather and his rich who would sold him his worn shoes once a year for half the price

Pratchett was great a using satire to criticize humans' bad behavior. Sam Vimes is a favorite

I've had to explain this to tourists about why living in a tourist town is both a miserable and inescapable experience. If my family didn't have Section 8, we'd be paying about $3,750/month in rent for just under 1,000 sq ft. I'd love to leave, but the rent means saving money is impossible.

They Are Greedy (Pre-FDR: ‘NEW-DEAL’ ) Robber Barons =Who Caused Pre-FDR/Last Century’s Great Depression’s &Great Suffering!! And Now the Next Great Depression in this Century!!

My point was that he probably talked about Farage (& maybe Musk) in a public setting before he died, & we probably have those quotes.

I think what he made of them was characters called Reacher Gilt, Crispin Horsefry, Lord -- okay no, IYKYK, and if not, I will not do spoilers.

The same holds true for furniture. Cheap particleboard falls apart, while solid wood furniture lasts for generations. Rich families end up spending less on furniture over their lifetimes than poor families.

'Morpork' 😜

My father in law always said that "we are too poor to buy cheap things"

A good modern example is something like subscriptions. If you can afford to pay a large amount upfront you save money over all. But some people can afford £9 a month but not £80 one month.

The poor always pay (at least) twice. It is Known.

There's a company that makes boots that last a lifetime?

cheap shoes at Walmart, I would have to buy a new pair of shoes every month for both of my sons. They were very hard on shoes.

yeah capitalism . capitalism is great for expanding borders, and chasing resources in early stages . not so good in mid to late stage as everything flows towards the top .

Especially for taxpayers .

And is now an actual economic theory.

And the person that could afford the 50 dollar boots that would last 10 years, would probably toss them the next year.

Reply with alt text.

We're currently doing the stage adaptation of Men at Arms - this speech has become all the more one of my favourite bits in the Discworld canon after seeing it read aloud.

This is lived daily in America. No chance to save $10 as you have to replace your boots so often and there’s a hurricane or fire🤷🏽‍♀️

Yup.

That is the point of the passage. It’s not saying ‘buy the expensive boot to save money in the long run’, it’s calling out (to your point!) that people have circumstances that prevent them from making those investments in the first place and, as a result, they will spend more in the long run.

Terry Pratchett (through Sam Vimes) was not suggesting you should spend 50$ on boots. He was pointing out that people who don't have 50$ to spend on boots are getting fucked over. That's why it's specifically called out as unfair.

Behold the "buy now, pay later" world of credit, where a man can, if he chooses, buy more than one pair of the $50 boots and hope they wear out or he dies before the credit machine comes after him.

Once we get past the 500 year old Protestant Work Ethic idea of where value comes from, we’ll be able to do this nationally.

I think about this more often than most men think about the Roman Empire

Dollar Store merchandise, much?

Truth. I grew up privileged, but shopped with friends and had qualms about dropping 💰 for stuff. My father shook his head at my H&M crap: "Divide the cost by the number of times you'll wear it." By that logic, my cheap clothes were expensive. And some of the costliest are down to pennies per wear.

I will never not like this when it makes the rounds. Sir Terry was a gem.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_t...