[HPforGrownups] Why are there financially poor magical people in the first place?

[ksnidget at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 42698

Lexan writes:

>I'm sorry if I sound rather cluleless, but this has been bothering 
>me for long... 

We all have our moments 

<snip>
>But what about other things? To illustrate: why not transfigure your 
>one's old clothes to stylish expensive ones? And they can conjure 
>things out of midair, right? Like Mrs. Weasley conjuring sauce out 
>of her wand, remember? And it's not just about clothes. It's about 
>everything. They can do endless things with magic for their own 
>convenience! So why are there poor magical folk?

There are limits to what magic can do.  JKR has a set of
rules that she uses to decide what can and can't be done.

One of the rules (and I think she talks about it in an interview)
is that stuff you conjure up from nothing doesn't last.  At some
point yeah, you make your life more comfortable, but it probably
gets embarassing when the Armani suit you are wearing keeps
dissappearing every 3 hours or so <evil grin>  "Oops could
you all please turn your back until I conjure a new suit and put
it on.  Thanks ever so much...."

I do think they can use magic to make life a lot more comfortable
than they would being poor and non-magical, but many of the
necessities of life, clothing, housing, books, school supplies,
are all things that need to be purchased.

Ksnidget