There's something that's been bothering me lately.
So. I am, without a doubt, a well-to-do person. I have a college education and no debt. I am more than ten years into a well-paying career, one that has taken me into the low six figures. This isn't a brag or a complaint, it is a statement of fact. I have $$$CASH MONEY$$$ and so have the money needed to invest in good, long-lasting boots loafers, as per the Vimes theory of boots.
I still can't get good loafers.
Every year or two, I troop back to the shoe store to buy new loafers, because my old loafers have fallen apart. I should point out here that I live in the American South and am a homebody--I'm wearing these shoes for maybe a third of the year at most, and even then, I'm not exactly walking miles and miles on a regular basis. I work from home, for crying out loud. But my loafers invariably wear out in a year or two.
A few years ago, I got fed up. All this time, I had been buying loafers in the $50-$70 range--maybe that was the problem? That seemed like a reasonable amount of money to spend on lasting shoes to me, but maybe I was wrong. There were a lot of shoes at the department stores and DSW that cost much more. Maybe I needed to invest in expensive shoes to get loafers that would last. So I went to the shoe store with my partner and dad and found a pair of good looking loafers that seemed sturdy to me. I got a second and third opinion from my menfolk, who agreed that the construction looked good. And then I spent $120 on those loafers.
In a few months, the decorations had fallen off. In a year, the soles had begun to wear thin. And in two years, the soles were falling to pieces. Eventually a rescue puppy I was temporarily housing finished the job, but the shoes were all but dead by then. $120 for a pair of loafers, and they still fell apart in two years.
At this point I was furious. FINE. Fuck the nice shoe stores. If I can't buy shoes that last, then I won't spend loads of money on them. I went to Walmart and picked up a $20 pair of loafers. By the end of winter I had realized that I was an oblivious fucking rich bitch with no idea of how bad shoes could get, because for the first time in my life I really understood how Vimes could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork. Apparently, the other $100 I had spent on the fancy loafers went entirely towards the sole.
Here's the thing: I know, in my bones, that Elon Musk's loafers do not wear out. Peter Thiel's loafers last for years. Jeff Bezos's loafers might well be a decade old. There is no way in hell any of these guys' shoes fall apart in the space of a year or two. Therefore, somewhere in this country, you can find and purchase well-made shoes. But that location is not where the general public goes. Well-made shoes are no longer sold in department stores or shoe stores. You need--I don't know--connections? Insider knowledge? Something more than just a few hundred dollars to burn.
I'm just...utterly baffled by this. What does it say about society when even having money isn't enough to buy good shoes? That can't be a good sign.
