A cartoon on privilege

I thought this cartoon was very meaningful.

Your family environment can make a big difference....
While people who are determined can pull themselves up (and I'm sure we have many self starters on this forum), we can see people get a head start in life because of where their parents are.

A more extreme illustration would be being brought up in a Favela in Rio vs. living in a normal house. There, if you deal drugs you are powerful. Everybody else just be thankful you don't get into trouble.
#checkyourprivilege

Anyway, here's the cartoon I wanted to share. Small actions and diffferences in situations can make a huge difference to a persons life outcome. Like compounding interest, where you are today is a result of all your past experiences. It adds up.

https://brightside.me/article/what-you-should-think-about-before-you-judge-others-10155

 

Interesting !

 

It's easy to continue downward spirals, it's the path of least resistance but people can push against it and make a change. Lots of people have been successful despite bad circumstances, myself included.

 

Anyone born in this country is already immensely privileged.

 

Yup! But most don't realise it. If you've never known any different it is impossible to compare...

That cartoon is American....they don't have the social protection like we have here and it tends to ensure that the poor stay poor.

Check out the latest four corners on iView...

Even if you're flat broke here you can still go to uni, do a trade or whatever you wish....how lucky are we?

 

Actually, that is a New Zealand cartoon.

 

Really? Ah, you're right! My mistake!

 

Excellent cartoon. It's simple but that's the beauty of it.

 

If your parents were both not well educated, then there is a pretty high chance that there was no one to push you during school to try and achieve anything, and unless you were naturally academic, it simply would never occur to you to do more than show up and pass tests.
End of high school comes along and you would end up not going to uni and your whole life would be much harder. You also would not have the ability to go to uni because your schooling was not enough to put your education up to standard to be able to make it through any uni course.

A lot of us grew up on the other side where it was just expected that we would do well at school, and we naturally met what was expected of us. It makes it hard to fully comprehend that others lived an entirely different experience than us and makes us often unable to realise that not everyone can push against it and make much of a change.

Just because there is some person (possibly you even) who had nothing and made it through doesn't mean anyone can. That is a bit like saying "oh lots of people are billionaires so anyone can be if they push through", or "oh look there are 10 people in the world making a killing playing tennis, so any of the 50,000 other people can make a living off it if they just push through.

Yes most. The people who grew up in a decent middle class family and had a good education but end up just screwing around and then with nothing to show for it at 35-40 thinking society owes them something really ****** me off.

"oh my god housing is too expensive - the government need to fix this for us at once!"
"well yea when you are 35, had an excellent education, but have zero dollars saved, of course its too expensive, you jackass."

 

There are two types of deprivation, one of the material kind (low income, lack of opportunities) and the other immaterial (lack of interest in education, social skills, motivation and a positive view of the world).

All too often as the cartoon suggests, the two are intricably linked in a vicious circle.

However in cases where there’s only material and not immaterial deprivation the chances are good for the individual to overcome it and make good, especially in a country like Australia.

I was in that situation…

 

Is Eazee finance a member here?

 

This.

The scale of privilege in developed country like Australia is quite different from developing.
For me privilege is when one kid have a pocket money, at a school wearing uniform, when the kid out of the fence were begging for food with no shoes. The only difference is that they're born in different family.

 

My husband's entire family went to school in what is now Strathpine without any shoes. In fact no-one at the time wore shoes to their school. I attended school in the inner ring of Brisbane and I found it quite easy to become somewhat wealthier than my parents. Hubby's family were pushed to go to school and so was I, we were both the same as far as our families valuing education. All our generation are far wealthier than our parents. We all have very high IQs and all came from the lower class, poor and very poor compared to other families around us. This was back in the 50s and 60s before Australia's welfare system became so generous and when discrimination was rampant.

Now here is the catch.

My brother and I were raised quite differently by our parents - I was "never" as good as him. He quickly became far wealthier than I am. Our parents were better off then Hubby's parents, and now some of his siblings are just as wealthy as my brother. Some of us are a little bit wealthier than our parents while others are far wealthier.

Emotional abuse and child abuse are far more difficult to overcome than some people would suggest.

 

As a grandchild in an extended family of over 60, I was the 1st to even get past Yr10.... so that cartoon resonates very well with me.

If life & opportunity were a 100m race, those born in Australia start around the 50m mark.... we should be very grateful for that.

 

Not really a post to "like" per se...

 

I thought it was a great cartoon. I work with many people like the guy in the first column and often feel like I live in a parallel universe - the constant pre-occupation with which private school your kids go to and you went to (and even what 'tier' school it was - these are people aged 40 to 60, mind you, so quite a long time ago ) and who has the most connections or 'knows' the most people, particularly those with status such as athletes, politicians, rich business people, etc. A huge amount of name dropping. I often find it a bit jarring and hard to believe as my background is the complete opposite.

One guy who is particularly well off (lives in an inherited fully paid off house near the harbour) is also quite delusional. I remember a few months back, he made a comment that as long as he's making 1k/week, he doesn't think his quality of life would drop much. Never mind that this amount wouldn't cover his kids school fees! I almost fell off my chair.

 

That is my brother in Sydney to a Tee. They are currently selling up and coming back to Brisbane, maybe the new address will make him normal again. I wonder if he reads this forum?

 

Just another victim post
funny how the cartoonist made the boy have all the privilege
and poor Paula an inferior minion

re-read the cartoon , in fact all Paula's problems seem to be at the hands of a man .

it resinated with the OP ↓ ??? M.O.
Working as a woman can be frustrating

 

Maybe you can draw us another cartoon about a rich guy who worked so so hard and didn't get anything handed to him ever? #notavictim #merit #trickledowneconomics