“It is common nowadays to refer to anyone with wealth or opportunities as ‘privileged.’ Loving parents don’t pass on opportunities to their children, they bestow privileges. A self-made businessman who rose from rags to riches isn’t a model of achievement— he’s privileged. Using ‘privilege’ in this way means that we don’t distinguish between children who work to make the most of the opportunities their parents give them and entitled brats who expect everything to be handed to them— and it means we don’t distinguish between those who achieve something through productive merit and those who get rich through the use of political power. In an economic context, the concept of ‘privilege’ should be reserved for those who line their pockets by taking advantage of special favours from the government— what is often called ‘cronyism’.
“Today, the opportunities for growing rich through cronyism are legion … ”
~ Don Watkins & Yaron Brook, from their new book: Equal Is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality.
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