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Old 09-20-2010, 04:33 PM
 
449 posts, read 930,791 times
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All of these answers only say that having money empowers people. This, we already know.

Assuming money brings about this "privilege" we are left with the fact that all of us have the same opportunity under the law to earn money. Granted, we have different factors in our life that make this more or less difficult but the fact remains that we all have equal opportunity. So, if having money translates into privilege and we all have the same opportunity to make money there is no logical concept of privilege. If we all have the opportunity to become lawyers, we all have the same opportunity to afford a good legal defense. Therefore the idea of "privilege" is nonsense.

Now, if someone is born into a powerful family and a that power is used to put that person into an unearned position of power that could be considered a real privilege. Obama's new SCOUS Elana Kagen is such a person. She truly is a poster child for privilege. But just being the kid of a building contractor who makes $300K per year is in no way privileged.
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Old 09-20-2010, 04:40 PM
 
42,732 posts, read 29,726,924 times
Reputation: 14345
Quote:
Originally Posted by edub View Post
All of these answers only say that having money empowers people. This, we already know.

Assuming money brings about this "privilege" we are left with the fact that all of us have the same opportunity under the law to earn money. Granted, we have different factors in our life that make this more or less difficult but the fact remains that we all have equal opportunity. So, if having money translates into privilege and we all have the same opportunity to make money there is no logical concept of privilege. If we all have the opportunity to become lawyers, we all have the same opportunity to afford a good legal defense. Therefore the idea of "privilege" is nonsense.

Now, if someone is born into a powerful family and a that power is used to put that person into an unearned position of power that could be considered a real privilege. Obama's new SCOUS Elana Kagen is such a person. She truly is a poster child for privilege. But just being the kid of a building contractor who makes $300K per year is in no way privileged.
This is just silly. First of all, not all of the answers ONLY said that having money empowered people. Secondly, your claim about Kagan is hooey. She's no poster child for privilege. If you want to continue to make such a ridiculous assertion, prove it. Your opinion is insufficient.
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Old 09-20-2010, 05:04 PM
 
449 posts, read 930,791 times
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Originally Posted by DC at the Ridge View Post
This is just silly. First of all, not all of the answers ONLY said that having money empowered people. Secondly, your claim about Kagan is hooey. She's no poster child for privilege. If you want to continue to make such a ridiculous assertion, prove it. Your opinion is insufficient.
What else did they say?

Here is Kagan from Wikipedia. Note her skyrocket to the top while she was hardly old enough to purchase a beer. I guess when she is a radical Leftists it is assumed she earned it. Good Grief.

The first time she practiced law was for the White House. But she isn't connected - not at all.

Kagan was born and raised in New York City. After attending Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard Law School, she completed federal Court of Appeals and Supreme Court clerkships. She began her career as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, leaving to serve as Associate White House Counsel, and later as policy adviser, under President Clinton. After a nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which expired without action, she became a professor at Harvard Law School and was later named its first female dean.
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Old 09-20-2010, 05:39 PM
 
58,463 posts, read 26,794,988 times
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Originally Posted by edub View Post
Obviously, being born into wealth has a number of advantages. But what exactly do people mean when they claim that certain people are born into "privilege"? In other words, aside from the obvious advantages that come with wealth, what special rights do these people enjoy that are not available to everyone?

Now before you answer, it is obvious that wealth provides many options that would not exist otherwise. But, how exactly is this a privilege and who is giving it? Clearly, it is an advantage, but it is one that either the individual earned or the individuals family earned.

It seems as though many feel that society has two sets of laws - one for those born into a family above a certain income and another for those born into a family below that income. And by the way, what is the income level?

So, I'm wondering if anyone who believes this is so would be able to articulate exactly what the rules are for each and how they differ. Mind you I am not asking how the reality of the situations differ as that is obvious.

What I am looking for are the specific laws or policies that give a rich person special rights and corresponding laws that deny these rights to everyone else. After all, it is silly to call people privileged unless there is some written policy that delineates exactly what the privilege is and who is entitled to it.

Again, no generalizations about how much better it is to be rich than poor - this is not about the obvious. I am asking people to articulate the exact designation of "privileged" and the exact distinction between them and everyone else.
Do some research on the Kennedy's trangressions. You will find many occasions where having the Kennedy name gave them privileges the average person would not get.
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Old 09-20-2010, 05:49 PM
 
5,764 posts, read 11,595,435 times
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If we all have the opportunity to become lawyers, we all have the same opportunity to afford a good legal defense.
I'm not quite sure what this means...

Let me give you a real-life example of "privilege," though. I once did some consulting for one of the oldest and best-regarded "prep schools" on the East coast. This school was famous for educating the children of the wealthy and the notable in American society, but they did also offer academic scholarships for some children whose families could not afford the $40,000+ annual tuition.

All of the students who went to this school were privileged in some ways - they all had access to top-notch college prep services and guidance counselors. They all had access to well-paid and well-connected teachers who generally did an excellent job teaching them the curriculum. They were, after all, at a top-ranked boarding school. It came with certain advantages.

But some of the students were privileged in several other ways. Which is to say, since their parents were executives or trustees of large fortunes, they had access to a full spectrum of things that money could buy - posh vacations around the world, season passes to some of the world's best ski resorts, memberships at exclusive country, yacht, or equestrian clubs (or all three), trust funds, private planes, pricey cars, and the technocratic training on how to manage all this - there were a couple of famous "wealth camps" held in Switzerland during the summer break in which some of these kids were assigned individual "wealth advisers" by their parents' bank, and taught the ins and outs of managing a trust fund and other finances.

But perhaps above all, due to their membership in these various social organizations, they were privileged by their connections - they dated each other, they attended the same charity galas and dinners, and over time, they were properly "socialized" into the world of American wealth and power.

So when they went off from their prep school into Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, etc., they hit campus with an impressive social safety net right behind their financial safety net. They knew "the right" people. Some were extremely intelligent and motivated to perform academically, but even if they weren't, they didn't need to worry about summer jobs, since their connections could get them in the door at a variety of places, and if all else fails, daddy could just conjure up a make-work position at somewhere respectable and send the kid back to Switzerland for a few more weeks for further wealth management training.

One interesting aspect of all this was the very fluid transnational nature of these kids. Many had done their elementary school in countries like Switzerland or Luxembourg or Austria in order to become fluent in a couple of continental European languages (usually German and French) and to intermingle with some of the children of the European elite.

Some were regularly sent to Hong Kong over the summer as kids to learn Cantonese. One of the more popular wealth management courses for Asian-American families was run during the summer by Standard Chartered PLC out of Singapore, and included instruction on how to do business in mainland China (including meetings with Chinese business elites and a few officials).

So, there isn't one single aspect of "privilege;" it can be multi-faceted. But obviously being born into significant wealth has a whole host of early and continuing advantages, especially the social advantages. And there is a certain amount of ongoing social "filtering" that takes place at the college level and beyond - such as the groups of students at various eastern colleges who are known to charter private jets and hop over to Paris or London for weekend culinary tours.

That's quite a social experience, I'm sure, but unless you've got some money to burn, that whole aspect of social connection-making will be inaccessible to you, even if you do attend a top college.
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Old 09-20-2010, 07:27 PM
 
449 posts, read 930,791 times
Reputation: 401
Quote:
Originally Posted by tablemtn View Post
I'm not quite sure what this means...

Let me give you a real-life example of "privilege," though. I once did some consulting for one of the oldest and best-regarded "prep schools" on the East coast. This school was famous for educating the children of the wealthy and the notable in American society, but they did also offer academic scholarships for some children whose families could not afford the $40,000+ annual tuition.

All of the students who went to this school were privileged in some ways - they all had access to top-notch college prep services and guidance counselors. They all had access to well-paid and well-connected teachers who generally did an excellent job teaching them the curriculum. They were, after all, at a top-ranked boarding school. It came with certain advantages.

But some of the students were privileged in several other ways. Which is to say, since their parents were executives or trustees of large fortunes, they had access to a full spectrum of things that money could buy - posh vacations around the world, season passes to some of the world's best ski resorts, memberships at exclusive country, yacht, or equestrian clubs (or all three), trust funds, private planes, pricey cars, and the technocratic training on how to manage all this - there were a couple of famous "wealth camps" held in Switzerland during the summer break in which some of these kids were assigned individual "wealth advisers" by their parents' bank, and taught the ins and outs of managing a trust fund and other finances.

But perhaps above all, due to their membership in these various social organizations, they were privileged by their connections - they dated each other, they attended the same charity galas and dinners, and over time, they were properly "socialized" into the world of American wealth and power.

So when they went off from their prep school into Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, etc., they hit campus with an impressive social safety net right behind their financial safety net. They knew "the right" people. Some were extremely intelligent and motivated to perform academically, but even if they weren't, they didn't need to worry about summer jobs, since their connections could get them in the door at a variety of places, and if all else fails, daddy could just conjure up a make-work position at somewhere respectable and send the kid back to Switzerland for a few more weeks for further wealth management training.

One interesting aspect of all this was the very fluid transnational nature of these kids. Many had done their elementary school in countries like Switzerland or Luxembourg or Austria in order to become fluent in a couple of continental European languages (usually German and French) and to intermingle with some of the children of the European elite.

Some were regularly sent to Hong Kong over the summer as kids to learn Cantonese. One of the more popular wealth management courses for Asian-American families was run during the summer by Standard Chartered PLC out of Singapore, and included instruction on how to do business in mainland China (including meetings with Chinese business elites and a few officials).

So, there isn't one single aspect of "privilege;" it can be multi-faceted. But obviously being born into significant wealth has a whole host of early and continuing advantages, especially the social advantages. And there is a certain amount of ongoing social "filtering" that takes place at the college level and beyond - such as the groups of students at various eastern colleges who are known to charter private jets and hop over to Paris or London for weekend culinary tours.

That's quite a social experience, I'm sure, but unless you've got some money to burn, that whole aspect of social connection-making will be inaccessible to you, even if you do attend a top college.
There is no doubt that the super rich .0001% of the population have connections that allow them to attain things not attainable by the vast majority of people. If your parents can buy you a professorship at a distinguished university you are certainly born into privilege. Such things are wrong.

But aside from that you are essentially begging the question. Obviously people with a lot of money have opportunities and advantages that the poor do not. But these are not societal privileges because they were earned by that person or their families and not given to them by the government. Getting a job or a college admission based on legacy preferences would be a privilege and it is wrong. The same is true of a racial preference which is certainly a privilege not afforded to others.

Anyone can become rich in this Country. And as long as this is true, the fruits of success will always be available to all and can thus not properly be called "privilege."

Again, one can not call the children of a guy who makes $500K a year as a contractor privileged. They obviously have a leg up in life, but society offers them no distinct privileges above and beyond those offered to anyone else.
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