The theory of socio-economic unfairness
The reason that the rich are so rich is because they manage to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. Say you earn thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which are sort of OK for a season or two and then leak like hell when the carboard gives out, cost about ten dollars.
The really good boots last for years and years. A man who can afford fifty dollars has 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.
Sgt. Vimes, City Watch.