I would go broader and say that the privilege of wealth is freedom from consequences.
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
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Freedom from consequences and unlimited continues. They can try and fail as many times as they like.
And then they convince themselves it was their perseverence and gumption that resulted in all their success, which enables them to look down on anyone who isn't successful, because clearly they just lack perseverence and gumption.
Exactly. There's people being stupid all over the place. Some still wear that as a badge of honor. It's time that smart and responsible gets cool again.
You nailed it!
From the first episode of The Boondocks, the pivotal moment for main character Huey when he realizes dropping inconvenient truths on the rich won't upset them in the slightest:
Huey: "Ruin the party? They love me. These people aren't worried about us. They're not worried about anything. They're rich. No matter what happens, these people just keep applauding."
True story.
One of George W. Bush's friends was telling a story about the future President. He was a recent college graduate and came to her house with a load of laundry, because he couldn't figure out how to clean his own stuff.
I’m embarrassed to admit that this was me.
My mom had a thing about washing clothes - how they were washed, how they were dried (usually hung up to dry, often over random doorways around the house, never in the dryer) and starching and ironing. And sometimes the socks and underwear would be hung up, too. So if people came over we’d have to hurry up and put all that shit away first. (We didn’t have a dedicated laundry room)
When we went places she would critique other people’s clothes and note if they hadn’t been pressed correctly or something, “they didn’t even use starch on that shirt”, but also she also never showed me how to do it because she was so particular.
So I was already an adult the first time I used a washing machine and I still feel victorious every time I throw all that shit in the dryer.
That's a good story. My family moved into a big apartment complex when I was in 6th Grade. There was a big laundry room in the basement and somehow I became the Laundry Czar of my family. First good paying job I got I started having it done for me.
Don’t blame you at all for doing that - it’s worth it just to be sorted/folded/hung.
You don't need to tell me this is a true story, I just know it is 😂
I feel you. It's unfair but it doesn't have to be. If we made a law mandating the recuperation of all earnings exceeding, idk, 10/20/X times yearly min wage, we could curb these inequalities or at least make it easier for everyone to live without the fear of imminent poverty. And that's just a bandaid fix for today's society!
No one in power will ever agree to this peacefully. Just my thoughts.
"Violence has never worked!"
Except for all the times it has.
Improvements in human rights never come from peaceful protest.
The history of the US is slaves vs property owners. And the only leverage the slaves have ever had is numbers and orginized violence.
We badly need to evolve our idea of democracy to allow for it to work when the rich and corrupt self interests try to control it. the US governmental system isnt safe against those influences so it seems doomed to fail in its current form.
We cant just wait for benevolent strongmen like FDR (Roosevelt) to come along periodically and right the ship, followed by many decades of compounding corrupution. We were lucky to get Roosevelt and have the legacy of his influence last as long as we have. I'd guess that whats left of the new deal will be badly mauled or done away with by the end of trumps term, assuming we are even still a country with 50 states, which isnt looking promising. So its time to start thinking now about whats next.
Elect ME president and I will do it by sheer force
What if some powerful people give you billions of dollars to not do it? And simultaneously other people start sending you credible death threats if you go through with it.
Now imagine they're also threatening your family and that you love your family a lot.
The problem with power, is how it's effected by money and fear.
They can give me all the billions, I'll do it anyways, and then I'll tell em "no give backsies"
I hate my fucking family they're all conservative southerners
Well you managed to avoid the question...
Imagine the money was contingent on the action.
And like I said, imagine you loved your family, like for instance if it were your spouse and kid.
I dont care about the money Fear and threats would be even more motivation.
Being stupid isn't the privilege. It's having people accept your stupidity as fact even if they know better that is the privilege.
I know PLENTY of poor people who are stupid as fuck. Money may play a role, but it is not a major one. Try visiting rural Kentucky sometime.
Ya but their stupidity transforms into those pesky consequences
As I said to the other guy:
What you fail to realize is that if you are stupid or poor enough, consequences have no meaning or effect. There's not a lot to be done to someone who lives in a 60-year-old single-wide trailer with no electricity, drinking well water drawn 30 feet from an oozing pile of trash, who can't spell their own name.
Fair enough 😂!
Or as they say; you can't beat stupid!
I'm squinting my eyes at this possible jab
I have already said it in other answers, I repeat it again:
-
I'm referring to the PRIVILEGE that the rich have of being able to be stupid without major or even outright any consequences.
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Obviously, by pure statistics, there will be MILLIONS of stupid poor people.
I read those responses; what you fail to realize is that if you are stupid or poor enough, consequences have no meaning or effect. There's not a lot to be done to someone who lives in a 60-year-old single-wide trailer with no electricity, drinking well water drawn 30 feet from an oozing pile of trash, who can't spell their own name.
I strongly disagree, because one of the consequences of being stupid while being poor is precisely to remain poor or outright misery . And with what you say, well, it can always get worse: losing the trailer in a disaster, catching a disease from poorly treated water, being deceived with promises of wealth and ending up in prison or dead...
Agree to disagree, I suppose.
Your basic assertion is that a poor person would have to change their ways due to circumstances brought-on by their stupidity, and this is false.
The stupid lack the awareness to see the issue as having come from themselves, and therefore will not change; when you have no money, you pay for everything with bits of your life.
So a person who is both stupid and poor will see sickness, jail time, any sort of negative as merely another price tag to pay for what others have done to them. They'll pay the price, become a little more bitter, and continue as they were - most-likely with a heightened determination and sense of pride.
That's not a privilege, that's a punishment, whether they recognise it or not
I dunno man, just look at ol' rudie guiliani and mike lindell (the pillow guy). They're both broke as shit, ruined their lives. Now all they have left is grift
They're just chosen among many. We stand no chance.
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