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A story about two pairs of boots illustrates how rich people get richer in ways poor people can't

It’s got nothing to do with bootstraps.

Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness explains one way the rich get richer.

Any time conversations about wealth and poverty come up, people inevitably start talking about boots. The standard phrase that comes up is "pull yourself up by your bootstraps," which is usually shorthand for "work harder and don't ask for or expect help." (The fact that the phrase was originally used sarcastically because pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps is literally, physically impossible is rarely acknowledged, but c'est la vie.)

The idea that people who build wealth do so because they individually work harder than poor people is baked into the American consciousness and wrapped up in the ideal of the American dream. A different take on boots and building wealth, however, paints a more accurate picture of what it takes to get out of poverty.

Author Terry Pratchett is no longer with us, but his writing lives on and is occasionally shared on his official social media accounts. Recently, his Twitter page shared the "Sam Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness" from Pratchett's 1993 book "Men At Arms." This boots theory explains that one reason the rich are able to get richer is because they are able to spend less money.

If that sounds confusing, read on:

Pratchett wrote:

"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

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.

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 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."

In other words, people who have the money to spend a little more upfront often end up spending less in the long run. A $50 pair of boots that last five years essentially cost you $10 a year. But if you can only afford $10 upfront for a pair of boots that last six months, that's what you buy—and you end up paying twice as much over a five-year period.

There are so many areas in which this principle applies when you're poor. Buying in bulk saves you money over the long run, but you have to be able to afford the bulk cost up front. A reliable car that doesn't require regular repairs will cost more than a beater, but if the beater is all you can afford, that's what you're stuck with. You'll likely spend the same or more over time than if you'd bought a newer/higher quality car, but without the capital (or the credit rating) to begin with, you don't have much choice.

People who can afford larger down payments pay lower interest rates, saving them money both immediately and in the long run. People who can afford to buy more can spend more with credit cards, pay off the balances, build up good credit and qualify for lower interest rate loans.

There are lots of good financial decisions and strategies one can utilize if one has the ability to build up some cash. But if you are living paycheck to paycheck, you can't.

Climbing the financial ladder requires getting to the bottom rung first. Those who started off anywhere on the ladder can make all kinds of pronouncements about how to climb it—good, sound advice that really does work if you're already on the ladder. But for people living in poverty, the bottom rung is just out of reach, and the walls you have to climb to get to it are slippery. It's expensive to be poor.

When people talk about how hard it is to climb out of poverty, this is a big part of what they mean. Ladder-climbing advice is useless if you can't actually get to the ladder. And yet, far too many people decry offering people assistance that might help them reach the ladder so they can start taking advantage of all that great financial advice. Why? Perhaps because they were born somewhere on the ladder—even if it was the bottom rung—and aren't aware that there are people for whom the ladder is out of reach. Or perhaps they're unaware of how expensive it is to be poor and how the costs of poverty keep people stuck in the pit. Hopefully, this theory will help more people understand and sympathize with the reality of being poor.

Money makes money, but having money also saves you money. The more money you have, the more wealth you're able to build not only because you have extra money to save, but also because you buy higher quality things that last, therefore spending less in the long run. (There's also the reality that the uber-wealthy will pay $5,000 for shoes they'll only wear a few times, but that's a whole other kind of boots story.)

Thanks, Terry Pratchett, for the simple explanation.


This story originally appeared two years ago.

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Man breaks down how living in an all-inclusive resort is cheaper than his average apartment

"I just might find myself on a beach somewhere sucking down cocktails and WHAT OF IT."

Representative Image from Canva

Are resorts the new retirement homes?

Don’t know if you heard, but the cost of living is pretty high these days. Prices for groceries, restaurants, gas, and other necessary items just to, you know, live in the world, reaching an all time high is already making what used to be a decent wage barely enough to get by.

And let’s not forget the biggest financial whammy of all: rent prices. According to Zillow, the average rent price in the US was $1,958 ( recorded in January 2024). That a whopping 29.4% price jump since pre-pandemic times. And of course, that not even taking larger, more expensive cities into account.


It’s enough to make you wonder: “Is it actually cheaper to just live in an all-inclusive resort at this point?”

This question was certainly on Ben Keenan’s mind. In a now-viral TikTok, the 31-year-old compared the cost of living in a resort to that of his Seattle apartment. And let’s just say…it sparked a conversation.

Keenan broke down how much he spent each month on essentials like rent ($2300), utilities ($300), WiFi ($40), car/insurance ($320) and groceries ($400), plus nice-to-haves like dinners out ($300), drinks ($300) and his gym membership ($40). All totaling to $4000.

The first all-inclusive resort that Ben showed, located in Mexico, was priced at $4,500. For a little more, Ben could get everything he was used to having, minus any chores.

"Yes, that's $500 more than what I normally spend on rent, but bear in mind, I'm not paying the most expensive rent out there compared to, like, what other people in Seattle might be paying, for example. Also, is that $500 worth me never having to do a single ounce of laundry or any of my cleaning or whatever?" he said in the clip.

The next resort in the Dominican Republic would be $3,100, already cheaper than what he currently pays. And if he were to, say, split a double room with a roommate, well…you don’t have to be good at math to know that’s a lot less.

In the video's caption, it seems pretty clear that Keenan might be tempted to abandon it al fo that sweet resort life.

"I just might find myself on a beach somewhere sucking down cocktails and WHAT OF IT," he wrote.

@ivebentraveling Honestly, kind of a joke but kind of serious - I might just find myself on a beach somewhere sucking down cocktails and WHAT OF IT 😩 #allinclusive #allinclusiveresort #resortlife #livehack #mexico #dominicanrepublic #travel #travellife #travelmeme ♬ Funny video "Carmen Prelude" Arranging weakness(836530) - yo suzuki(akisai)

Down in the comments section, Keenan’s video struck up a conversation about another affordable alternative lifestyle: cruises. A few even referenced Nancy and Robert Houchens, the retired couple who famously began living on cruise ships because “it’s cheaper than a nursing home.”

Not to mention…it inspired some pretty funny (if not a little bittersweet) jokes from millennials.

“New retirement plan” rent our house and live at an all-inclusive resort with a butler til I die,” one person wrote.

“All inclusive resort aka millennial assisted living,” another quipped.

And perhaps the most millennial joke of them all: “‘Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ got it right all along.”

It’s no secret that many working adults can’t foresee a future where they’d be able to afford the same “American Dream” that their parents achieved. And if having a forever home isn’t a possibility, traveling the world or enjoying a relaxing retirement very well might be the next best thing. And even if finances aren’t an issue, this kind of lifestyle just might align with current values a bit more.


This article originally appeared on 2.19.24

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A guy and his friends shared their travel plans. The results perfectly explain the wealth gap.

What on Jeff Bezos's green earth did we just watch?

TikTok/@tcruznc

Sometimes you see something so mind-boggling you have to take a minute to digest what just happened in your brain. Be prepared to take that moment while watching these videos.

Real estate investor and TikTok user Tom Cruz shared two videos explaining the spreadsheets he and his friends use to plan vacations and it's...well...something. Watch the first one:

So "Broke Bobby" makes $125,000 a year. There's that.

How about the fact that his guy has more than zero friends who budget $80,000 for a 3-day getaway? Y'all. I wouldn't know how to spend $80,000 in three days if you paid me to. Especially if we're talking about a trip with friends where we're all splitting the cost. Like what does this even look like? Are they flying in private jets that burn dollar bills as fuel? Are they bathing in hot tubs full of cocaine? I genuinely don't get it.


To be crystal clear here, the top 5 friends on the Forbes list are willing to spend more than double what the guy at the bottom of the Welfare 10 list makes per year on a 3-day guy's trip. I don't know what to do with this information.


But that's not even the full spreadsheet. It might make sense if this guy was just rich, had always been rich, only knew rich people, and therefore having multiple millionnaire friends was his normal. Surely that's some people's reality who were born into the 1%.

That's not the case here, though, because Cruz also has a Welfare 10 list. He says this group of friends who make less than $100K a year call themselves that, and perhaps that's true. (If I were a part of this group, I might call myself a welfare case too because everything's relative and some of these dudes spend more in an hour of vacation than I spend on my mortgage each month.)

It's like we can see our society's wealth gap all laid out nice and neatly in a spreadsheet, only these people aren't even the uber-wealthy and uber-poor. This is just the range of this one guy's friends.

I have nothing against people who build success and wealth for themselves, and even $5 million per year is hardly obscenely wealthy by billionaire standards. But Cruz says he's known most of his "welfare" friends since college, which presumably means most of those guys have college degrees and are making pittance in comparison with the Forbes list. One could claim the guy making $5 million a year just works harder, but does he really work 100 times harder than the guy making $50,000? Doubt it.

Money makes money, and after a certain threshold of wealth or income, it's actually quite easy to get and stay rich without actually "earning" more money, assuming you're reasonably wise and responsible. So maybe the guys who are willing to shell out $125,000 for a week-long trip should offer to pay the travel expenses of the friends they "hang out with regardless of income" who don't even make that in a year, since that's probably just the interest they're making on their wealth anyway.

But what do I know? This is like an entirely different world to me and probably 99+% of Americans, as evidenced by some of the responses.

Naturally, there will be a range of incomes in any group of people, but 1) most of us don't actually know how much our friends make, and 2) even fewer of us make spreadsheets with that information in order to rank our friends and figure out who can go on which vacations.

People are just endlessly fascinating. That's all I've got.


This article originally appeared on 08.20.21

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Gen Zers are surrendering their pets because they can't afford them. It's a wake-up call.

We need to be a lot more up front about how expensive pets actually are.

Photo by Tatiana Аzatskaya/Pexels

Many people get a pet without realizing how much it will cost them over time.

Many young adults have a desire to have a cat, dog or other pet when they set out on their own, whether for personal security or cuddly companionship. But unfortunately, many Gen Zers who have gotten a pet have found that the cost of keeping them is simply unsustainable.

In fact, a LendingTree survey of 1,991 U.S. consumers discovered that 25% of Gen Zers said they have given up their pet because they couldn't afford to care for them. They're not alone, though. Across all Americans, 12% have surrendered a pet for the same reason.

Rising costs due to post-pandemic inflation put a strain on many pet owners as pet food and supplies became more expensive over the past few years. But inflation isn't solely to blame for pet unaffordability issues. Having a pet is expensive across the board, and there are often costs that don't get considered when someone decides to bring an animal into their home. We don't talk openly enough about how pricy pets can be, and with around two thirds of U.S. household having pets, young people may believe they're easily affordable.

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Why are pets so expensive?

Food and supplies: The most basic ongoing pet expense is the stuff that keeps them alive and safe, such as food, litter, etc. These are the generally predictable costs most people think of when they're planning to get a pet. Sometimes an animal can have problems with certain food ingredients, and specialized food can be exorbitantly expensive, but it's still a steady cost that can be incorporated into a budget. Some pets need specific enclosures and even specific lighting or warmers as well.

Vet bills: Some vet bills are predictable, such as regular checkups and vaccines. But you never know what the vet might find even on a routine checkup, and if anything needs to be done, it can add up quickly.

But there are also health maintenance vet bills that many people aren't aware of. For instance, cats should have their teeth cleaned professionally every year or two, according to many veterinarians. A teeth cleaning might not seem like a big deal, but cats have to be anesthetized to do it, so it costs hundreds of dollars (sometimes over $1,000, depending on the vet).

Grooming: Depending on the pet you choose, you may have to pay for haircuts or other grooming costs. Some dogs have hair instead of fur, which can get overgrown and matted if not properly cared for.

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Boarding/pet sitting: Unless you never go anywhere or always take your pets with you (which isn't always feasible), you'll likely have to pay for someone to care for your pets whenever you leave town. That could range from paying a friend in pizza to full-on boarding kennels, which can sometimes cost as much as a hotel room, but it's an expense people often don't think about until a vacation comes along and they have to figure out what to do with their furry friends.

How much does it cost to have a pet?

According to Rover.com the average annual cost of owning a cat is $710-$2,865 a year and for a dog it ranges from $1,000–$5,225. That can be a lot for people who are on a tight budget. And when you start adding multiple furry friends together, it gets even more expensive.

There are other pets people can get besides cats and dogs, of course, and they'll all have their own average costs. But there's no such thing as a free pet, so it's important to be sure you can easily afford them in your budget regardless of what kind of animal you get.

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How can people more easily afford to have a pet?

1) Look at getting a pet as a major life purchase with ongoing expenses. Just like when you buy a car and know you'll have to pay for gas, oil and air filter changes, new tires and repairs when something starts to not work right, you have to account for all the potential costs of having a pet. Literally plan it into your budget to be sure you can afford it.

2) Crunch the numbers and see if pet insurance might be a good option. According to PawlicyAdvisor.com, the average monthly premium for pet insurance ranges from around $20 to $40 for a cat and $35 to $120 for a dog (depending mostly on breed). Premiums rise with an animal's age and can vary greatly by breed for dogs, but pet insurance could be a good option if budgeting a steady monthly insurance premium is easier for you than being hit with an unexpected vet bill.

3) Look for assistance if you're struggling to afford your pet.Pethelpfinder.org is a great resource that can direct you to programs in your area that provide affordable pet services or help with the cost of food, vet care and even boarding. The Humane Society offers a list of resources for people who are having problems affording their pets as well.

4) Consider fostering instead if adopting a pet really isn't in the budget. There are lots of animals out there who need temporary care while they wait for their forever homes. Fostering gives you the benefit of caring for an animal without the cost, as the expenses are covered by the foster program. It can be hard to let them go when they do get a permanent home, but if you see it as a service for the animal, giving them a loving temporary home, it can be incredibly rewarding.

cat in a blanketCats and dogs can cost more than people expect. Photo by Tatiana Аzatskaya/Pexels

Having a pet is a significant expense and we need to be upfront about that. There are options available if you find yourself struggling to afford pet care, so be sure to exhaust whatever options you have if you want to keep your pet. At the same time, rehoming a pet when finances make it impossible to care for them properly is an act of love in itself. Making sure our animals are thriving is the most important thing, even if that means finding them a home that can provide what they need.

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