The Boots Theory

A literal interpretation

My oldest son is 29 years old and has worked in construction since he was a teenager. He started by building barns and sheds when he was 17. He comes from a line of carpenters and builders, and he continues the tradition.

My dad was a carpenter who started his career in the Seabees. After his service, he worked odd jobs in construction until he settled on cabinet building in his 30s. He built beautiful furniture and cabinetry for other people who could afford those things. His own homes were always missing the craftsmanship as he was too tired from work to do those things for himself.

A mechanic’s car never runs right…

My son does a little woodworking, but he works mostly in commercial building. He’s a guy who can fix most things around the house and knows just enough to be dangerous with things like electrical and plumbing.

I recently needed help with a door that was sticking and a floor that kept coming up in a bathroom in my old house — he agreed to come up and do the work for me a few weekends ago.

When he came in the house, he put booties over his dirty boots so he could walk through the house. I don’t really have any flooring nice enough to need booties, but he knows how I feel about shoes in the house.

He was trained well.

As soon as he lifted his boot to slip on the blue paper bootie, I noticed the sole of his boot. It was flapping a little. It had come loose from the rest of the boot, and the leather was cracking wide at the toe.

I looked down at his other boot, and it was in the same condition.

Photo via Reddit on making work boots last longer.

I asked him about his boots, and he said, “I’m sorry you don’t approve of my work boots, Mother.”

He only calls me “mother” when he is being a smartass. I had him when I was nearly a child myself, and we basically grew up together. We know each other better than most.

I knew what he was saying though — times are tough, and there’s nothing I can do about these stupid boots, so let it go because it embarrasses me.

I did let it go and he stayed the night because the job took more than a day.

If you ever have the gift of having an adult child stay the night with you, you understand my joy in having him in the house. Even if he cussed the floor and the baseboards and the plumbing and the uneven 125-year-old farmhouse floor for a full 24 hours.

I don’t mind his foul mouth because he came by it honest.

I’ve always been too busy and too poor to coddle my children, and there were too many to do that anyway, but I did make myself available for them as children. I was far from perfect, but I made them supper and read to them and helped them with homework and made sure that they knew there were other people in the world, and as their mom, I felt part of my job was to make sure they didn’t think the world revolved around them.

That said, I was more than happy to make my son lunch and supper, and we all sat around until very late in the night talking and gossiping and having a few beers.

It was a happy weekend, but his boots bothered me.

So, I bought him a new pair.

Why would I buy boots for my adult kid who is a father himself and works a full-time job and has the means to buy another pair of cheap work boots?

Because I know and understand the boots theory. Because I lived it and I don’t want my kids to live it. Because poverty runs through my family tree like the blood that runs through my veins.

The Boots Theory is an economic theory that people in poverty have to buy cheap and subpar products that need to be replaced repeatedly, proving more expensive in the long run than more expensive items. The term was coined by English fantasy writer Sir Terry Pratchett in his 1993 novel Men at Arms. In the novel, Sam Vimes, the captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, illustrates the concept with the example of boots.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... 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. ... 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.

It’s very expensive to be poor. Ask me how I know…

I know my kid can go buy another pair of cheap boots. I know they won’t last…I know the next time I see him he’ll be sporting a floppy sole or have duct tape wrapped around the entire boot to hold it together.

I know he’ll waste time fixing them and waste time wearing uncomfortable boots for months until he buys another cheap pair.

That’s why I spent hours researching work boots and reading reviews and watching YouTube videos featuring blue-collar men discussing boots.

I finally bought the boots that were recommended by the guys who should know, and had them sent to my son. He is very proud to wear the new boots, but a little embarrassed by them too. I told him to rub some dirt on the stitches and scuff up the sole and no one will be the wiser.

Buy it nice or buy it twice, right?

I love the saying, but I don’t love how impractical it is for anyone living in poverty, or hell, living in the middle class these days. I have always bought twice unless I was able to thrift quality things.

Paycheck to paycheck living will not buy quality anything.

Now that most of the kids are out of the house, we have a little more disposable income, and we can help them occasionally.

They don’t ask for help…in fact, they usually reject help. They were brought up to do it for themselves, but sometimes, we help if we can.

I know how lucky our grown children are to have people around them who can help. Many don’t have that resource. Especially now when the price of everything is going up and wages are stagnant.

Especially now with the real threat of an authoritarian boot on all of us.

The boots theory.

A literal interpretation.

~Jess