“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 the 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.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

Fascinating glimpse at inflation over 40 years. H/T @sam_a_voice pic.twitter.com/M0DfR0nL6T

— Mark Sparrow (@MarkGSparrow) March 8, 2014

@MarkGSparrow @gerry_4 this is interesting too x pic.twitter.com/2ZycP1pjjO

— Dr Tig Calvert (@sam_a_voice) March 8, 2014

Interesting In praise of... in the Guardian

Just heard the best political interview in years - James O'Brien knew his facts, refused to be browbeaten and kept politely and firmly insisting the Iain Duncan-Smith learns to listen to inconvenient facts... he wasn't successful of course but it was massively illuminating. 

Listen to the amazing exchange in full below

It's abundantly clar that Iain Duncan-Smith has no idea of what the Court of Appeal actually ruled nor about the fact that Caitlin Reilly was required to give up a more relevant piece of work experience (she did not 'volunteer' to for work experience entirely unsuited to getting her paid work).

So, the top man at Thomas Cook trousers £15m in 'hard earned and decent' (my sarcasm) bonuses over the last couple of years and now Thomas Cook is in dire trouble and planning to lay off thousands.  Well thank goodness for Free markets.  Nurses, teachers and other public servants must have their pensions cut, but goold old chief executives must have huge payouts even in times of trouble.  We're all in it together of course....

Saw a piece earlier in the Guardian about Steve Keen, the Australian econonmist who seems to have been more right than most on the crisis and actually saw it coming.

Larry Elliot has a good piece in The Guardian today