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> White high school dropouts are wealthier than Hispanic college graduates. What I'm seeing is "people who have lived in America for a long time (European heri

> White high school dropouts are wealthier than Hispanic college graduates. What I'm seeing is "people who have lived in America for a long time (European heritage) are on average wealthier than people who arrived fairly recently from third world countries (Hispanic heritage). Why is that surprising? Why is that a problem?

mlevental 9y ago
the article says absolutely nothing about immigration or third world countries. whether the paper controls for generational wealth i don't know. >Why is that surprising? ...it's not to me since i understand we live in a structurally racist society >Why is that a problem? ...the op asks about "privilege" not whether it's problematic. inherited wealth is most certainly privilege. i was only addressing that. there are many good reasons why privilege of this sort is problematic that i will not rehearse here (many smart people believe estate tax should be 100%; here is the guardian on it https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/utopian-thinking-fund-welfare-state-inheritance-tax https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/utopia...).
- heisnotanalien 9y ago
  So people work hard all their life for their wealth (maybe they earned a lot or maybe they were just frugal) and smart people think it is okay for the state to take 100% of it away? And you think that's okay? I just can't get my head around how anyone can think that's moral at all. Oh yes, I see this is teh same Guardian writer that was defending Stalin so no surprises really.
  - mlevental 9y ago
    >I just can't get my head around how anyone can think that's moral at all. it's not rocket science: fair is value-system and ethics dependent. yes in a certain value-system and ethics it is not fair to give people advantages they didn't themselves earn. whether it's the right ethics/value-systems is up to you as an individual and us as a society to decide. really obvious example: weight classes in combat sports.
    - heisnotanalien 9y ago
      Well duh. That goes without saying.

mlevental 9y ago

the article says absolutely nothing about immigration or third world countries. whether the paper controls for generational wealth i don't know. >Why is that surprising? ...it's not to me since i understand we live in a structurally racist society >Why is that a problem? ...the op asks about "privilege" not whether it's problematic. inherited wealth is most certainly privilege. i was only addressing that. there are many good reasons why privilege of this sort is problematic that i will not rehearse here (many smart people believe estate tax should be 100%; here is the guardian on it https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/utopian-thinking-fund-welfare-state-inheritance-tax https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/utopia...).

heisnotanalien 9y ago
So people work hard all their life for their wealth (maybe they earned a lot or maybe they were just frugal) and smart people think it is okay for the state to take 100% of it away? And you think that's okay? I just can't get my head around how anyone can think that's moral at all. Oh yes, I see this is teh same Guardian writer that was defending Stalin so no surprises really.
- mlevental 9y ago
  >I just can't get my head around how anyone can think that's moral at all. it's not rocket science: fair is value-system and ethics dependent. yes in a certain value-system and ethics it is not fair to give people advantages they didn't themselves earn. whether it's the right ethics/value-systems is up to you as an individual and us as a society to decide. really obvious example: weight classes in combat sports.
  - heisnotanalien 9y ago
    Well duh. That goes without saying.