Why would I try to do that? Instead, why don’t you try to understand why that would be a complete non sequitur? If you can understand that, you’ll be a lot closer to understanding the concept of privilege.
Frank’s connection network is as robust within his neighborhood as Bob’s is in his. As for how long Bob lasts, neither one is in immediate danger of death, although both suffer the risks inherent to the lives they lead.
“A fair amount of coke” != “so much coke that he’s going to OD.” Unless you think that everyone who uses coke semiregularly ends up dead or in long-term rehab, this is also a non-sequitur.
They almost always had luck.
Go read Hillbilly Elegy and let me know if you think that guy’s success is solely due to his hard work.
Right. So do you understand why its stupid to say that privilege plays no part in “sociability”? If being raised in the “right” culture is all you need to connect with others, then you don’t have to really work hard at it, do you? You don’t have to go out of your way to learn anything, correct? It just sorta happens for you, without any “merit” on your part.
So you’re saying that it doesn’t matter if you send your kid to a low-performing impoverished elementary school or an elite private school…your kid will develop the same knowledge base and skillset? Because on the planet I inhabit, not all schools are alike. On my planet, education access is tightly correlated with socioeconomic status.
The whole point of privilege is that “large” and “small” opportunities are categorically different. A person who gets a scholarship to attend college has a different kind of opportunity than a person who gets handed the keys to the family’s multinational corporation right after graduation. It is preposterous to say that both of these individuals have the same potentiality in life.
If Bill Gates’ story isn’t all special, why aren’t there more of him?
Do you think Bill Gates grew up in the projects, raising his younger siblings, dodging drug dealers on his way to a mediocre school? Or do you think he grew up in privilege, because only a privileged person could spend as many hours as he did teaching himself programming and launching his own business at such a young age?
We’re in GD, where cites should really be provided to support your assertions. Do you have a cite that demonstrates how “wrong” I am? Or do you need someone to walk you over to IMHO, where you can bloviate as much as you want?
Privilege is a “word” that is being obfuscated into some sort of socio-economic complaint by people in this thread to assuage their feelings about not having enough money (ECONOMIC privilege). I hear that. I’d like more money too. Hell, even the rich and greedy want more money. It’s nobody’s fault, maybe not even your own, if you don’t have enough money. It’s also regrettable that so few have so much. Sorry about that.
Why do you believe your lack of economic privilege is any more or less important than some rich guy’s situation?
Do me a favor and post up jpeg’s of your bank statements.
They are completely un-related. Your post is click-bait for the economically disadvantaged (as opposed to “the privileged.”)
There are hard workers and slackers in every echelon of society.
wut
At the point where you’re putting “word” in irony quotes and asking incoherent questions about why I believe things that I’ve never claimed to believe, I don’t see where this conversation has room to grow.
It’s a bit of both, I think.
Privilege makes hard work go further. I think most millionaires work hard, but it’s easier to become a millionaire if you’re born into the middle class compared to being born in the ghetto, even if you never received any inheritance.
That’s not how I see privilege being used in this thread. To put it relatively simply, it’s a way to talk about the millions of little difficulties that some people face routinely due to characteristics like race, gender, and the like. Some of those difficulties can make it harder to succeed in education, finding a job, succeeding in a job, buying a house, avoiding random violence, and many other things that can strongly affect one’s chances at a decent life.
Everybody does not work hard. That’s ludicrous.
However, so-called privilege and hard work being two variables with regards to outcome is surprisingly nuanced.
Of course family matters. We are biological entities and the product of over a billion years of evolution. Why shouldn’t more successful families exploit that success?
In mild degree, it’s fine. Maybe even something that should be encouraged, because it gives the poors something to model themselves after. “Middle class values” and all that.
But in excess it leads to unstable societies.
We don’t exist as just individuals or just family units. We also exist as communities, as societies.
How is that responsive? Are you saying that privilege exists based on the luck of birth, but that it’s a good thing in all cases? Or are you saying something else?
It depends where in the world we’re talking about.
Social mobility; that is, how well parents’ relative income is a predictive factor of their children’s income varies by country. In the United States, there is a very high correlation between parents’ and children’s income (I note though that my home country of the UK is even worse in this regard).
Answering the question in the abstract, I would lean towards privilege as being important, especially if privilege includes parents who instill particular values (so not just money and a quality education).
Hard work is just a given. Most of us have to bust our ass in the modern economy, not just in the office but often with outside learning too.
Knowing how to direct ones effort effectively, and knowing what it takes to convert an aspiration into a reality are the things that make a difference between someone getting by vs being successful in this world.
What is “so-called” about privilege? Is it at all in dispute that some people are more privileged than others owing to having more advantageous unearned circumstances, including being born into more socially favored groups?
I don’t think anyone here is trying to claim that privilege is automatically more important than hard work, but it’s absurd to try to suggest that the existence of privilege isn’t a real thing.
I’m saying that privilege isn’t accidental in many cases. It’s deliberate and in many cases just. Why shouldn’t my children have advantages that come from my wife’s and my own sacrifices and hard work? We are all competing in a biological sense why shouldn’t I work to maximize my children’s ability to be successful in all aspects of life?
I grew up very poor and through my own behavior, environmental support such as public schools with good teachers, and intrinsic ability I’m now very comfortable. I don’t begrudge the fact that Bill Gates’s next 10 generations doesn’t have to work if he doesn’t want them to. That has ~0 impact on my life.
And I don’t buy into the forces of religion, nationalism, or other forms of societal manipulation at the expense of my own family.
TLDR version, focusing on the individual while ignoring what a family has earned misses a very significant point.
…I didn’t really understand privilege until I read this comic by New Zealand artist Toby Morris.
No-one is begrudging parents helping their children.
What we’re talking about is making it easier for those from poor backgrounds to make something of their life. Making sure that as many people as possible get the great teaching that you received.
None of this involves trying to pull back kids from wealthy families.
Nobody’s saying your children shouldn’t have those advantages that you work so hard to give them. The point is that as far as your children themselves are concerned, those advantages are unearned.
Your children as individuals did not do any more to deserve those benefits than billions of less fortunate children did. They merely happened to be lucky enough to be born into your family.
It’s natural for parents to see children in many ways as extensions of themselves, but other people are more likely to see them as separate individuals. Nobody’s suggesting that you shouldn’t use your wealth to benefit your children, but there’s no meaningful sense in which your children can be said to have personally “earned” those advantages just by happening to be your children.
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I grew up very poor and through my own behavior, environmental support such as public schools with good teachers, and intrinsic ability I’m now very comfortable.
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Being white, male, straight and a native English speaker in the wealthiest nation in the world helped too. That’s not in any way disparaging your own achievements; that’s just pointing out that while you were disadvantaged in some ways, e.g., financially, you were also advantaged in others.