Where do I find Terry Pratchett’s boots theory of poverty? I’ve seen it referred to on the Boards but can’t find it again.
Here it is.
Thank you! I should have realised that Sir Terry’s contribution to socio-economic theory woukd have been picked up on Wikipedia.
Of course, even after Vimes eventually becomes rich, he still chooses to wear cardboard-soled boots, mostly because that’s what he’s used to.
There’s also Douglas Adams’s shoe event horizon from the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series (season 2), which aired in 1980.
The theory is summarized as such: as a society sinks into depression, the people of the society need to cheer themselves up by buying themselves gifts, often shoes. It is also linked to the fact that when you are depressed you look down at your shoes and decide they aren’t good enough quality so buy more expensive replacements. As more money is spent on shoes, more shoe shops are built, and the quality of the shoes begins to diminish as the demand for different types of shoes increases. This makes people buy more shoes.
The above turns into a vicious cycle, causing other industries to decline.
Eventually the titular Shoe Event Horizon is reached, where the only type of store economically viable to build is a shoe shop. At this point, society ceases to function, and the economy collapses, sending a world spiralling into ruin.
In the show Arthur encounters an archaeologist who is looking at a crumbly stratum of rock-like material that turns out to be a compressed ancient layer of shoes formed by the planet’s inhabitants creating an entirely shoe-driven consumption economy. Doubtless Pratchett would have been familiar with this.
Damn, I love this board.
So, no debate if this is true in the real world?
As to the boots there is a third option: that instead of buying the new high quality boots or the new low quality boots some of us would buy used high quality boots [as the new high quality boot purchaser will often donate them after a few years as they are no longer in style or are somewhat worn].
One of the more repulsive moments in the completely worthless, tin-eared The Watch series was that it chose to include this, but treat it as a joke. (In a later episode while arguing with “Vimes”, “Lady Sybil” says “Why aren’t you wearing decent boots? Oh, yeah, that’s right. “My boots cost $10.”” in a mocking tone.)
There’s plenty of evidence to show that it is.
I’m really glad I didn’t watch that show.
It’s a little weird that this one paragraph may be best-known (or most widely-known) thing that Terry Pratchett wrote.
As famous as Heinlein was, what has stuck in the consciousness that even younger people (under 30s) are somewhat aware of? Grok and probably TANSTAAFL. People still use the latter and have no clue to its origin or that Heinlein is the one that popularized it.
They probably don’t know who Heinlein is in the first place.
Yes, exactly.
No, no debate. It’s true.
Now, boots aren’t the only thing keeping the poor poor. The paragraph quoted in the Wiki article starts
(emphasis mine) There are a lot of things out there that are “poor taxes”. For example, laundromats. The one downtown charges $5 for a wash. You have to buy a card and use that for wash / dry. You pay $20 and they put $18 worth on the card (when you re-fill the card, $20 gets you $20), so there’s more you’re paying than you get out of it. Meanwhile, you can get a new washer for $600 or so. If you do 3 loads of laundry each week, you’ve paid the laundromat more than that in a year. But if you’re living on minimum wage, you don’t have $600 to spend on a washing machine right now. I can afford $600, so I have a washing machine at home.
There are plenty of similar examples out there.
I think it’s true in the same sense that a proverb or rule of thumb is true, but not in the sense that a law of physics or mathematical theorem is true. That is, it’s true in many specific instances, but it cannot be counted on as a guide to every specific instance.
No idea what this is, but I’m not a Heinlein fan.
Did not know grok came from Heinlein, though I knew it was a sci-fi reference.
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.