The ‘Boots’ Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness
As Aura will undoubtedly agree, this … this … is how you know someone broke through and made a difference:
Forget receiving a knighthood for services to literature or whatever … nobody’s ever heard of Sir Charles Dickens, but they sure as hell know who Ebeneezer Scrooge and Oliver Twist are.
Having the ONS agree that their tools are unfit for purpose and need to be recalibrated in order to take account of the plight of the less well off (let alone the actually impoverished) thanks to a campaigner using your yardstick for the iniquity of the social and political environment, yeah, that’s an achievement … one worth more than all the enoblements bestowed throughout History — that puts you up there with Dickens himself as one of History’s greatest social commentators.
Congratulations to both Pratchett and Monroe on this — it’s not before time, but better late than never … and (who knows?) maybe it’ll encourage more people to read his work into the bargain ¹.
#VimesBootsIndex
Now … all that needs to happen next is for people to open their eyes, look around them and realise Douglas Adams was almost, but not quite entirely, wrong: it isn’t the Shoe Event Horizon we need to worry about but the Charity Event Horizon — for the last thirty years, the number of actual shops on any given street has been dwindling and, in not a few places, the only way to compete on the high street has long been to open a charity shop ².
#CharityEventHorizon
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¹ Which would be far, far better for everyone than any amount of ̶ ̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶n̶s̶e̶n̶s̶i̶c̶a̶l̶,̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶m̶e̶d̶-̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶m̶s̶i̶c̶a̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶r̶d̶-̶h̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶n̶o̶s̶t̶a̶l̶g̶i̶a̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶x̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶B̶l̶y̶t̶o̶n̶-̶e̶s̶q̶u̶e̶ ̶e̶r̶a̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶-̶w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶r̶e̶l̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶(̶E̶t̶o̶n̶)̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶o̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶l̶e̶m̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶c̶r̶i̶b̶e̶d̶ Harry Potter.
² It’s no longer commercially viable to open a business selling goods you have to pay for, only those donated to you for free by the public — and I know of one second-hand bookshop that won’t even accept donations anymore, because they can’t afford the storage/shelf space! ³
³ Forget taking your old books and selling them like you used to … you have to sneak down in the dead of night, with a plastic shopping bag (or four) of old books you want rid of, surreptitiously dump them in the doorway … and run! ⁴
⁴ *Cough* or so ̶I̶’̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶l̶d̶ I imagine anyway *cough*.
