Amazon.com
Calls from liberal and left social critics for advantaged people to recognize their privilege also underscores this emphasis on individual identities. For individual people to admit that they are privileged is not necessarily going to change an unequal system of accumulation and distribution of resources.
Instead, we should talk not about the moral worth of individuals but about the moral worth of particular social arrangements. Is the society we want one in which it is acceptable for some people to have tens of millions or billions of dollars as long as they are hardworking, generous, not materialistic and down to earth? Or should there be some other moral rubric, that would strive for a society in which such high levels of inequality were morally unacceptable, regardless of how nice or moderate its beneficiaries are?
– What the Rich Won’t Tell You, Opinion, New York Times, written by Rachel Sherman
Amazon.com
- This essay is adapted from “Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence
- The New York Times Opinion section is found on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion)