PRIVILEGE - is affluence the ultimate indicator in the USA?

[howaboutme]

We hear whining about racism (as in those words said in a heated moment), victim-hood, poverty, under-education and over-representation but in the end the real (as in THE REAL) victims are those at the bottom of the economic food chain.

Yes - some put themselves at the bottom with drugs and addiction, but many others are excluded from the process of advancement by the lack of a peer network, and of parents with the proper credentials of heredity. Having the proper pedigree makes success come easy as well as admission to Harvard.

Those at the top of the food chain get a voice, and we hear their voices on the radio or often see them on TV, because affluence is all about having a voice in society. Lack of affluence means no voice. Those most affluent not only have a voice, but are also the predators in society. They are the pack wolves that herd for their own. They got to their position by being a predator and they will remain there as a predator. They buy and control our governmental leaders. The rest of us are relegated to much lesser status.

Those with privilege focus their attention on only those with privilege. It is a club. It isn't about politics, religion, culture or heritage...that is irrelevant. It is about having wealth, a major voice in government and policy making privileges and that defines "privilege". Some use it to exclude others and that defines racism.

In America we sometimes talk about racism, poverty, bankers and capitalists robbing us, and equality of representation in government and in our justice system, but the bottom line is always about policies that encourage those with the most an opportunity to succeed while those with the least opportunity are relegated to the least position, and it isn't always about skin color.

If this is a vanity post - guilty as charged.

[county worker]

1. I agree with you. I have a hard time explaining it and you did a good job.

I noticed that when I was growing up I was encouraged to be a unskilled worker like my father was and the kid down the street was encouraged to be an accountant like his father was.

When it came time to pick a college my folks didn't even consider it for me. I thought I was not supposed to go to college.

I was influenced by others as I grew older and made the decision to get an accounting degree and it is why I am working today.

I think about the kids who are never encouraged to go where their talents can take them and how that keeps them in the poverty group.

[howaboutme]

10. Atlantic Monthly

did an excellent article years ago on the declining ability of Americans to move and advance upward (upward mobility) from their existing economic class.

The article said it was becoming increasingly difficult due to the barriers of an obvious caste system that was based upon common interests of wealth, ethnic heritage, education, that was advancing and developing within the USA at an alarming rate.

Insiders promote a caste system for their own, just as they do in other cultures. While society has always had a penchant to protect our own tribe the outrageous unfairness of it all is that those who question it should be rewarded and not criticized.

We Americans must demand appropriate diversity and representation throughout our society and government in policy making positions. It should be ability based, and never crony based. The basis of cronyism and thus privilege is all too often about commonality of interests. Nepotism and cronyism is often at the basis of success of the privileged and it needs to end.

[begin_within]

2. The true measure of a society is how the least fortunate fare.

[bobbolink]

3. I like the use of the term "predator" here... and it applies to middleclass people who are put

"in charge" of poor folk, also. Always finding fault, always discouraging rather than encouraging.

Very well put... I hope you write more on this subject! :applause:

[bobbolink]

4. arrgghh...

Its annoying to be told it didn't post, then to end up with a dupe.

Vanish, dupe!

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Answer to the question you pose in your subject.....yes.

It becomes more and more apparent as the years go by. I remember when it was a truth, but it was not thrown in our faces. The wealthy continually told us that we could all accomplish great things too. Today, they just rub our noses in their arrogance.

[howaboutme]

8. It has always been a truth

The concept of a caste system was never before thrown in our faces as it is today. I watch CNBC most every day for a short time and the same people throw it back in our faces, that they are special and the rest of us are the saps that bailed them out.

Today it is obvious. The most over privileged group in America are the Wall Street club and they were rewarded for their greed and unethical thievery and financial destruction of both the USA and the world. They made trillions on ill-gotten gains before the crash, while the damage they created cost millions of average people more trillions and sadness in lost retirement and homes. They will shortly be buying our parks and public assets as a source of profit and income to bail our local governments, and they will be doing it because we wee forced to make them whole.

Instead of facing the gallows or being pilloried they were made whole and made wealthy again. The burden was placed on Americans with much less because the nation's debt that those of privilege created and caused will cost every American for generations to come. Politicians will use that indebtedness not against those of privilege, but against those of much less.

We must demand equality in government and equality in voice and an end to a caste system and that means equality in all perspectives.

[bobbolink]

6. Happy to be the 5th vote

Very well done!

[BrklynLiberal]

7. In case there is any doubt, the US is officially a plutocracy.

[marmar]

9. Agree to a point.......But racism is more than words said in a 'heated moment'. .....

..... It's pretty deeply ingrained in the nation's conscience, as is classism.

[TheMadMonk]

11. Privilege: literally "Private Law" EOM