<story><title>Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]</title><url>http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/eopp/eopp67.pdf</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>refurb</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not trying to generalize, because I know poor people who are poor through no fault of their own (and we should provide public support for them), but I also know a larger number of people who contributed to their own dire financial situation and it wasn&amp;#x27;t because they couldn&amp;#x27;t afford quality boots, it was because they over-extended themselves with new cars, a way too big house, the big screen TVs and expensive trips and meals.</text></item><item><author>hprotagonist</author><text>&lt;i&gt;The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes thought, was because they managed to spend less money.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x27;d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years&amp;#x27; 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_.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This was the Captain Samuel Vimes &amp;#x27;Boots&amp;#x27; theory of socioeconomic unfairness.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>quickthrowman</author><text>Poor people don’t go on airplane vacations or own houses. Poor people don’t have bank accounts. You don’t know poor people. You know people who live beyond their means.&lt;p&gt;Poor people are in Section 8 housing or various other housing vouchers.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]</title><url>http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/eopp/eopp67.pdf</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>refurb</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not trying to generalize, because I know poor people who are poor through no fault of their own (and we should provide public support for them), but I also know a larger number of people who contributed to their own dire financial situation and it wasn&amp;#x27;t because they couldn&amp;#x27;t afford quality boots, it was because they over-extended themselves with new cars, a way too big house, the big screen TVs and expensive trips and meals.</text></item><item><author>hprotagonist</author><text>&lt;i&gt;The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes thought, was because they managed to spend less money.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x27;d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years&amp;#x27; 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_.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This was the Captain Samuel Vimes &amp;#x27;Boots&amp;#x27; theory of socioeconomic unfairness.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>benlivengood</author><text>And bankruptcy fixes things for the latter folks because they have a good, stable income.</text></comment>