Voices
Outsiders can become insiders. They can do so by working hard, having new ideas, and getting rich, or they can do so by figuring out how to divert enough resources from the system to keep them comfortable. Wealth can become privilege and privilege can lead to wealth.
What ties together the Beacon vaccination scandal, the proposed revision of corporate taxation in the US, the Davy scandal, the vilification of the rich in New York, and the experience of the fictional Andrew and Barbara from a few columns ago? The short answer is to recognise we often conflate privilege and wealth. Wealth is income accrued over time. Privilege is that set of special rights, advantages, or immunities available only to a particular person or group. We assume privilege and wealth are the same thing, associated, perhaps even causally connected with one another. Sometimes they are, sometimes they are…
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