Readers on the ‘Sam Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness’ about how price rises disproportionally affect those who are worst off
The “Sam Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness” (Cost-of-living crisis: Jack Monroe hails ONS update of inflation calculations, 26 January) was not invented by Terry Pratchett.
Paul Jennings expressed exactly the same idea in his Observer column Oddly Enough in 1954: “You find, for instance, that you have got to have a new pair of shoes, so you rush into a shop and buy some; some cheap ones, and they are worn out in three months. But if you were on one of the inner platforms [Jennings’ term for the rich] you would go calmly into a rather splendid shop and buy the sort of shoes that are bought by men on leave in London from Africa, or down from their Scottish moorland estates.
