> Bookstores provide a lot of service value, a decent bookstore will allow you to find similar material, allow you to browse as you please (instead of the skimpy sample pages), usually contain an expert that can offer advice and allow you to walk out with your purchase. Additionally it's common to see a heavy effort at investing in the atmosphere. The key part is “decent”. Outside of the “walk out” part, none of these advantages apply if you don’t have a bookstore that matches what you’re interested in, which can be pretty difficult outside of mainstream subjects and the…
>Sam Vimes is also renowned for his "Boots Theory of socio-economic unfairness", as posited in Men at Arms: 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…
Costco's revenue comes from their membership fees and their ability to strongarm suppliers to give them favorable terms (eg. Costco is one of the largest alcohol importers in the US and tends to strongarm LVMH). I love Costco (I practically grew up at Costco as a kid), but their ICP is not the kind of person who shops at Dollar General or is on SNAP - it's very much targeted at the 50th percentile income bracket and above [0]. And this is why PE has taken over the dollar market segment - because it's a trash business that no one else wants to service over the long term. PE is basically the…
Precisely, although I don't think it's spoiling yourself. You use some things a whole lot that it makes sense to spend comparatively more on them than you would on "normal" items: * Bed * Office chair * Keyboard and mouse * Monitors * Footwear * Cooking basics like a couple of knives and a pan or two. Perhaps this can explain it better than I will ever be able: https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Econom... "At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the…
In the way I described, you're reversing cause and effect in many cases and putting the blame on people for being in a situation mostly out of their control. Poor people aren't poor because they spend all their money on avocado toast and fidget spinners, they're poor because wages have stagnated and the costs of housing, education, and healthcare have skyrocketed. The "welfare queen" stereotype of a poor person recklessly spending money doesn't reflect the evidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen#Gender_and_racia... It costs a lot of money to be poor in the USA: “The reason…
I'm not entirely sure the best solution is to educate people on buying quality clothes. While that is important, I suspect that consumption isn't just due to shitty clothes wearing out too soon. It's probably due to our culture of fashion trends and constant consumption and the "keeping up with the Joneses". If you go on fashion subreddits, you'll hear people talk about how you need to buy long lasting clothes, inevitably quoting that tired Terry Pratchett segment on boots^[1]. Except these same people have 10 pairs of long lasting boots! I don't know the answer because honestly, I do like…
This is a perfect real-world example of the Vimes Boots Theory of Economic Unfairness: "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…
A few years ago for my day job I was technical consultant on a demonstration being given to the Bulgarian Navy. Our equipment worked perfectly from the moment it was installed, so apart from helping our partners solve a problem with their kit, I had very little to do. I had a Bulgarian phrase book, so I decided to test out this technique: http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/LearningLanguages.html?HN I went to the local shops and bought a copy in Bulgarian of "Men At Arms" by Terry Pratchett, and I set about decrypting it. As you might expect, I didn't really get all that far in four days, but…
The whole point of micro financing like this is about giving people the chance to afford more expensive, quality items. Instead of buying a cheap electric space heater that heats their place but drives up their electrical bill because of inefficiency they can buy a real replacement central heater. Of course you are right that it can be abused but at least they have the chance to make better financial decisions because of services like that or as Terry Pratchett wrote in Men at Arms they can now afford to buy the expensive boots: The reason that the rich were so rich, [Captain Samuel] Vimes…
Mildly-topical Terry Pratchett amusement quote, since it involves a society that has overlooked the power of silicon plus the potential of superconductivity: > Detritus blinked. There was a tinkle of falling ice. Odd things were happening in his skull. Thoughts that normally ambulated sluggishly around his brain were suddenly springing into vibrant, coruscating life. And there seemed to be more and more of them. > 'My goodness,' he said, to no-one in particular. > This was a sufficiently un-troll-like comment that even Cuddy, whose extremities were already going numb, stared at him. > 'I…