The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … 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. … 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 a 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 socio-economic unfairness.
Its just a microcosm of how being poor is really expensive, while there are tons of ways to save money while wealthy. That doesn’t end up being the cause of wealth inequality but it does give a certain inertia to those class positions.
Edit: because I misremembered the quote and vimes does present it that way.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socio-economic unfairness.
-Terry Pratchett “Men at Arms”
There’s some truth here but it’s definitely not THE reason the rich are rich, not even close.
Its just a microcosm of how being poor is really expensive, while there are tons of ways to save money while wealthy. That doesn’t end up being the cause of wealth inequality but it does give a certain inertia to those class positions.
Edit: because I misremembered the quote and vimes does present it that way.
Unless boots were something that makes money.