I don’t know who said this first, however, I have read it many a times that “It is expensive to be poor”. In this context I recall Eli Khamarov’s words, “Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn’t commit”.

The title of the blog is such, to get your attention early and have you think ahead of reading about the question – “Is it expensive to be poor?”

The answer to this question can be explained, at best, using the “Boot’s Theory” mentioned by Terry Pratchett in his book “Men at Arms”. The fictional Captain Vimes said, “The reason that the rich were so rich…was because they managed to spend less money.”

Captain Vimes earned USD 38/ month plus allowances. A truly desirable pair of leather boots would cost fifty dollars. But a low-cost pair of boots, which was may be good enough for one season and then started leaking, would cost close to ten dollars. These were the ones Captain Vimes repeatedly bought and wore until the soles were so skinny that he could tell the texture of the material beneath his boot.

But the good boots lasted for years. So a rich man who could buy a fifty dollars boot could use the same boot for around ten years to keep his feet dry. While a poor man could end up buying ten pair of boots – ten dollars each and spend a hundred dollars for the same utility in the same period of time.

To add further, the poor man would also spend additional time and money for the buying activities – nine times more than the rich man. The cost of buying something is not just the price one pays for the product. It is also the cost one incurs in terms of travelling cost, and above all, the time cost they spend for buying that product. I have often noted that the poor don’t add the cost of their time in any activity they do and for this reason, often, they couldn’t pull themselves out of poverty.

Now, when you think of using the boots-theory on some very grave issues like Health, Medical, and Nutrition, the outcome can be alarming. With the above examples, may be there is an answer to the question I asked at the beginning of the blog, “Is it expensive to be poor?”