|
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 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 a 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." - Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett If you can afford to buy a decent car today, you'll still have a decent car in a few years, and have only put some basic maintenance into it. If you can't afford to buy a decent car today, you still need a car today, so you're going to buy what you can afford. Then in a few years, your crappy car will have crapped out (even with more-than-basic maintenance), and you need to buy another one. So, ten years down the line, you will have spent more on cars than the well-to-do, and you'll still be hearing a weird rattle in the engine every time you make a left turn. |