A friend of mine e-mailed with a different kind of complaint about the privilegometer that I posted about yesterday. She’s reflective about her upbringing and regards herself as coming from a background of essentially full privilege in socioeconomic terms. Yet she only scored a 28 out of 34. How would someone with full privilege not get full credit? Her complaints about treating the meme as a measure (edited somewhat for style and clarifying detail):
1. My parents like variety in their vacations so only one cruise. As you know, I’ve traveled abroad several times with my parents.
2. My parents didn’t believe in television, much less putting televisions in their children’s bedrooms. [People yesterday mentioned Fussell's book Class, and this is definitely consonant with his depiction of upper-class attitudes.]
3. I don’t think they’ve ever owned a house outright. However, that’s really an investment strategy rather than an indicator of their wealth. [I have no idea how common it is for financially saavy people of means to own their homes outright, but intuitively it seems like carrying some debt still makes good sense for the wealthy and that home mortgage debt is probably a relatively favored way of carrying that debt.]
4. I did not have a credit card before college. Instead, I had a checking account that they put money into.
5. I didn’t have a private tutor before age 18 because I never needed one. [Sibling] did, and had one.
6. I don’t have any relatives that are attorneys, physicians, or professors. But isn’t this an academia-centered view of privilege? Most of the wealth in this country (both old and new) is concentrated among people in business, and my family has been in business.
I think #6 is an especially appropriate consideration for the idea of using the meme in a course, and I feel dumb for not appreciating the point when I was doing the meme myself. Just because we in academia notice an abundance of children of professors among us, it doesn’t mean we should fetishize the occupation as some especial mark of privileged upbringing in society more generally.
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I actually had a similar reaction to your friend–I wondered why I hadn’t scored higher. I completely agree with the TV issue: we only had one set because we only semi-believed in it. We watched, but warily.
As to homeownership, mortgage debt comes with a big fat tax break (the mortgage interest deduction) so I figure that it is advantageous for all but the most wealthy among us (and the poorest, who don’t make enough money to justify itemizing).
I also assumed that the “attorney, physician, professor” grouping was more to do with the prestige associated with those professions than the earning power. We all know there are more lucrative pursuits, namely, “business.” However, business may or may not have as much prestige as other professions.
The concept of “privilege” isn’t solely based on wealth, right? If it were, we wouldn’t have those old money/new money distinctions.
On #6, I think that what would be a more appropriate question — and, what I think that the question is really trying to get at — is whether there are any people in your family with a post-secondary degree. Each of those professions requires one (JD, MD, PhD) and is an indicator of extremely high status. While my father is not a professor, he does have a PhD, and that has afforded me with all kinds of privilege being able to think about and navigate grad school.
I don’t think they’ve ever owned a house outright. However, that’s really an investment strategy rather than an indicator of their wealth.
Oh yeah, definitely an investment strategy. Most advice I’ve seen/heard on this is that you DON’T want to own it, because chances are that you can invest your money better than what you’re paying in interest for the loan.
Oh yes, of course, the better investing is partly possible thanks to the tax advantages mentioned by Jamybarab above, although chances are that even regardless one can compensate just fine.
Are you interpreting #3 as owning outright or owning with a mortgage? I assumed the latter since outright ownership is rare in the US and mortgaging is advantageous tax-wise.
I assumed it was owned outright. My parents own their house outright. I wonder what their thinking was with the question (or more accurately, the pair of “lived in a single-family home” and “owned a home by the time you left” items).
i actually assumed on the “owned a home” item that it included with a mortgage (though i don’t think i ever knew before now that there are 2 g’s in that word!). As to Jeremey’s question about why two different items, i was actually shocked how well it fit my experience - having moved through several rental single family homes with my mom before she purchased one (with a mortgage) when i was about 11.
Ditto Shrinking Isaac - The ultimate indicator of class, perhpas — owning a home “fully” never even crossed my mind — not because I would do this as an “investment strategy” (although it is a good one), but because I hadn’t thought it was an option! So I considered my parents homeowners erroneously.