Happy birthday Sir Terry Pratchett.

[michaelgemar@cosocial.ca]

@derbadian @count_01 He was so clear-eyed about human failings, and yet so humane.

[brouhaha@mastodon.social]

@derbadian
Being poor is very expensive!

[txt_file@chaos.social]

@billiglarper There is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
@derbadian

[em_and_future_cats@mastodon.social]

@derbadian This is very true logic, unfortunately

[leipoa@det.social]

@derbadian
May his name be forever remembered.
We've just finished reading "Lords and Ladies" to the children a. because it is great fun and b. to counterbalance the adoration for elves caused by a Lord of the Rings marathon at our local cinema (which was great fun as well).

[einspossum@chaos.social]

@derbadian If one is able to extrapolate this to "being able to spend more can save you money in the long run" instead of "expensive products are better value" then its a useful idea.

Being able to buy property saves you rent. Being able to pay fancy healthcare potentially saves you from suffering&paying more from getting really sick.

[renardboy@mastodon.social]

@derbadian aka "being poor is expensive."

Even if you play your bad hand really well and you save up for the better boots and then use the saved money to save up for the better gloves and then use the saved money to save up for the better coat, and after years you have all the better stuff, meanwhile some other guy had all of it from the get-go, and now he has the ultra-better stuff.

[the_turtle@mastodon.sdf.org]

@derbadian somebody wrote a couple of decades ago that middle-class people were fucked because they'd become convinced they were spending money on "investments" when they were actually just expenses. Houses. Cars. Babies. Furniture.

[patzer@mastodon.green]

@derbadian

[johnefrancis@cosocial.ca]

@derbadian things are pretty much this in the 21st century but with investment and tax efficiency.

[rebelyn2@c.im]

@derbadian I use this anecdote to explain systemic poverty to people all the time. Terry Pratchett was the best. RIP.

[synlogic4242@social.vivaldi.net]

@derbadian poor def have higher COL for necessities. like a trap

[farah@beige.party]

@derbadian This theory is brilliant!

I have a corollary to this theory- people who can afford all the bells and whistles of a product actually don’t use those products anyway, because they can literally get other people to get their things done, so the whole thing is moot. Tiered product options are just scams by capitalism

[imalcolm@mastodon.social]

@leipoa

It was reading Lords and Ladies many years ago that first made me question how much elf-lore in mythology and fantasy is just propaganda...

@derbadian

[leipoa@det.social]

@imalcolm
Yes!
@derbadian

[eestileib@tech.lgbt]

@derbadian

I read this as the bourgeois being better off than the poor for this reason; a moderate stake lets you live like that.

The rich buy stupidly overpriced boots to gatekeep, it's not the same.

[derbadian@mas.to]

@eestileib Once the author has written something and published it, it's up to the reader what it means. There's no right or wrong.

To me there's a lot going on, being poor is expensive, making (and keeping) money when you're rich is easy, etc.

Vimes likes the shitty boots, they let him feel the cobbles of the city under his feet in a way that the rich will never feel. But his feet are still wet.

[rebelrebel62@mstdn.social]

@derbadian @onepict #gnuterrypratchett

[wiredfool@fosstodon.org]

@derbadian
What I find so hilarious about that is that Vimes doesn’t like nice boots. He’s a barefoot shoes fan (to use nonfictional modern terms).

He wants soles thin enough to be able to read the cobbles and pavers as he walks the beat, (or walked somewhere with a blindfold) so that he can feel the texture of the city and know exactly where he is.

[derbadian@mas.to]

@wiredfool Yep, as I said in a reply to someone else "Vimes likes the shitty boots, they let him feel the cobbles of the city under his feet in a way that the rich will never feel. But his feet are still wet."