Dave-the-Flamingo t1_it88stu wrote on October 21, 2022 at 5:24 PM

Reply to comment by pkgary in [OC] Most of the items pawned in a poor district in 1836 Glasgow were CLOTHES, especially WOMEN's clothes by Equal-Crew-3367

You understand perfectly and it is a terrible thing that unfortunately still exists today in the form of payday loans. This is the brutal cost of being poor. They could have slipped into the cycle of pawning clothes, because they had a week/day without wages and then I imagine it is very hard to get out of. Not sure why they didn’t just not buy the clothes back. Perhaps they just still wanted to be part of the community or perhaps they truly believed that the afterlife was a better option for them so attending church was the best security for a good life after the bad one they are in!

pkgary t1_it8anql wrote on October 21, 2022 at 5:36 PM

That's definitely a good point. In the same way you see people spending way too much on car payments for vanity, I'm sure the thought of showing up to church and having everybody in the community clearly see that you cant afford Sunday clothes anymore (when you did before) would be crushing enough to make people enter that cycle of pawning.