On class differences and having stuff.
There's a "privilege list" floating around and annoying people who actually have a clue what it means to be poor, called Social Class on Campus. It's pretty much entirely about having stuff, and assumes a certain baseline privilege level. As Elizabeth Bear points out, there is nothing on the list for which a no answer would definiteively indicate a lack of privilege. John Scalzi got so irritated that he posted a link to something he wrote two years ago about being poor.
There's also a significant difference between "privilege" and "wealth." I was privileged in a lot of ways as a child, but we really didn't have much money. I was very conscious of the fact that all my clothes used to belong to one or more of my sisters.
A few of the entries that particularly annoyed me:
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Because all physicians, attorneys, and professors are wealthy, as are all of their families. Being related to wealthy people does not necessarily mean you benefit in any way from their wealth. I have a great-uncle who has a helipad. This says nothing about my level of privilege.
If you had more than 50 books at home when you were growing up
If you had more than 500 books at home when you were growing up
My dad was a librarian. Having tons (literally) of books hardly meant we were wealthy.
If were read children's books by a parent when you were growing up
Like Scalzi, I learned to read at a very young age. I could read my own children's books.
If you ever had lessons of any kind as a child or a teen
Aside from not actually being much of an indicator of class, this is incredibly vague. This could mean anything from expensive private music/dance/language lessons to free lessons at the community center, or lessons that you paid for yourself with money from your paper route.
If you had or will have less than $5000 in student loans when you graduate
If you had or will have no student loans when you graduate
Clearly, this one is aimed at kids at expensive schools who lacked need- or merit-based scholarships. Of my siblings, I am pretty sure I'm the only one who graduated with more than $5000 in student loans, and several of them graduated with no student loans. This is not because we had money. It's because they went to much less expensive schools, saved money from after school jobs in high school, worked through college, and worked their asses off to qualify for scholarships. The inclusion of this without any qualifiers particularly annoys me, because the list is supposed to be things that were handed to you, that you didn't have to work for. There are plenty of kids whose parents paid for school for them, but it is extremely presumptuous to assume that even most kids who manage to graduate with little or no debt did so on someone else's dime.
There's also a significant difference between "privilege" and "wealth." I was privileged in a lot of ways as a child, but we really didn't have much money. I was very conscious of the fact that all my clothes used to belong to one or more of my sisters.
A few of the entries that particularly annoyed me:
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Because all physicians, attorneys, and professors are wealthy, as are all of their families. Being related to wealthy people does not necessarily mean you benefit in any way from their wealth. I have a great-uncle who has a helipad. This says nothing about my level of privilege.
If you had more than 50 books at home when you were growing up
If you had more than 500 books at home when you were growing up
My dad was a librarian. Having tons (literally) of books hardly meant we were wealthy.
If were read children's books by a parent when you were growing up
Like Scalzi, I learned to read at a very young age. I could read my own children's books.
If you ever had lessons of any kind as a child or a teen
Aside from not actually being much of an indicator of class, this is incredibly vague. This could mean anything from expensive private music/dance/language lessons to free lessons at the community center, or lessons that you paid for yourself with money from your paper route.
If you had or will have less than $5000 in student loans when you graduate
If you had or will have no student loans when you graduate
Clearly, this one is aimed at kids at expensive schools who lacked need- or merit-based scholarships. Of my siblings, I am pretty sure I'm the only one who graduated with more than $5000 in student loans, and several of them graduated with no student loans. This is not because we had money. It's because they went to much less expensive schools, saved money from after school jobs in high school, worked through college, and worked their asses off to qualify for scholarships. The inclusion of this without any qualifiers particularly annoys me, because the list is supposed to be things that were handed to you, that you didn't have to work for. There are plenty of kids whose parents paid for school for them, but it is extremely presumptuous to assume that even most kids who manage to graduate with little or no debt did so on someone else's dime.