Privilege = $ub$idie$, By The Thou$and$

It is March 2020, and I have been a high school math teacher for 15 years in the Great State of Wishy Warshy, Pacified Northwest. 14 of those teaching years have been in Seattle. This is career #3, after about 25 years spent working out in that vibrant! private sector rat race.

'Privilege' is a topic education people love to discuss, to explore, to ruminate over, to pontificate about.  I've rarely been around or seen much effort spent analyzing the money $ide of Privilege.

Privilege helps you to be and allows you to be clueless about the live$ of people not from Privilege. For most of the Privileged, you get to be clueless about the security you had in your background because it is culturally critical to be ignorant of money. Given your money ignorance, you get to ignore that your background is from the top 50% or 25% or 10% of household income. You sure as hell won't or can't count those Thou$and$ of $ub$idie$ the make the security that makes the Privilege!

The following list has some examples of how people get their $ub$idie$.

EDUCATION: – After graduation, are you under the median in student loan indebtedness for your degree? Could you afford to work at unpaid internships?

HOUSING – after high school or college, did you get or will you get support for moving, for down payments, for security deposits, … for rent or mortgages? 

TRANSPORTATION – after school or during school, did you get a reliable family car hand-me-down for free or low monthly payments? Did you get help with down payments to buy a reliable car? 

HEALTH CARE ACCESS – after schooling, are you able to NOT go to the poor people’s clinics? Can you NOT rely on the poor people's health 'care' of ... Cross Your Fingers?

CLOTHING AND VACATIONS – can you afford to present well, so, you’re a ‘good fit’? During the 'casual' parts of interviews, can you chatter about the right kind of vacation$?

What about you?! 

How many Thou$and$ of $ubsidie$ are you NOT counting ??? 

+++++

Numbers from October, 2020. 

-- Individual Income Percentile - 2020

https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

Top 5% at or above $174,000. 

=> appx. 8.883 million out of appx. 176.666 million individuals with income. 

Top 20% above $85,950.  => 80%, appx. 141.332 million BELOW 

-- Household Income Percentile

https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/

Top 5% Above $270,358. appx. 6.421 million out of 128.421 million households 

Top 20% Above $142,400.

=> 80%, appx. 102.736 million household BELOW.

-- Household Wealth Percentiles

https://dqydj.com/net-worth-percentile-calculator-united-states/

Top 5% Above $2,584,000.  Appx. 6.421 million out of 128.421 million households

BOTTOM 50%, Less Than $121,411. 

=> appx. 64.210 million households. 

Factions - Working WITH Each Other, Not FOR.

Factions - from The Federalist #10, James Madison, November 1787.

"a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community".

I've just turned 60, I grew up in Massachusetts in a family always discussing politics. Who remembers the acrimony in the Democratic Party when Kennedy challenged Carter? When Dukakis won in 1988? When Clinton won in 1992, or Gore in 2000, or Kerry in 2004, or Obama vs. Hillary in 2008? Anyone notice happening now against Bernie Sanders? 

I've been active in various ways in the SEA from the 2009 bargain until 2018. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard 1 faction or another disparage another faction for a lack of solidarity or unity, I'd have a full paycheck!

HOW do we actually work WITH each other? In the current model the winners basically step on the toes of the losers, insult the losers as being anti-Solidarity and anti-Unity, and insist the losers work FOR the winners. When we look at General Assembly attendance, when we look at voting participation in Seattle Education Association elections, the current model is a failure. 

We need to change. 

MEETINGS, AGENDAS, ABBREVIATED ROBERT'S RULES - ONLINE AND OPEN

https://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/06/meetings-agendas-abbreviated-roberts.html