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4 Moving Toward Solidarity For people of privilege, one of the first steps in moving into an ethic of solidarity is to come to terms with their own privilege. The challenge of this task is that it requires people to acknowledge aspects of their identity and social location from which they benefit. This can be a difficult task in a culture where very few people think of themselves as privileged, wealthy, or powerful. In fact, the majority of people in the United States classify themselves as “middle class,” even many of those who fall in the upper 20 percent income bracket (>US $100,066).1 For the 1.29 billion people in the world who live on less than $1.25 US dollars a day, that fact is quite remarkable.2 What becomes obvious is that wealth has both absolute and relative qualities to it. People in the United States often think about wealth in absolute terms. Popular perceptions of what it means to be wealthy in the United States relate to those people who can afford to buy or do whatever they want, whenever they want.3 In a recent survey of US investors conducted by UBS, a global financial services firm, 50 percent of respondents defined “wealth” as not having any financial constraints. For these people, wealth is defined as the point at which money is simply not a factor in one’s decision-making processes. Only 31 percent of the millionaires in the survey considered themselves “wealthy,” and $5 million was the threshold at which the majority of respondents (60 percent) began to indicate that they considered themselves “wealthy.” For better or worse, most people think of themselves as people who do have to think about money, and most people who have to think about money define themselves as “middle class.” Most people have to plan for their retirement, save to buy a new car, a new house, or to go on vacation. They have to make budgets and stick to them in order to cover their expenses, regardless of their income level. However, from the vantage point of the majority of people in the twothirds world or even from the perspective of people in poverty within the first world, wealth is relative. New cars, new houses, and vacations are not even on their radar screens. The wants and needs of people who live on the margins 69 of society are much more basic: healthy food to eat, a clean, safe place to live, and opportunities for jobs that pay a living wage. Perspective makes all the difference when examining the different material circumstances of people around the world. In a cultural climate where people who are clearly wealthy by any objective measure nevertheless identify as “middle class,” it is extremely difficult to discuss aspects of privilege and the ways in which privilege shapes wealth, inequality, poverty and justice in society. The three most prominent forms of privilege—race, class, and gender—are unearned and largely immutable. While a relatively small number of people will change their gender, and some may pass as a different race, class is the category that is most often touted as a changeable aspect of identity. In fact, a 2005 New York Times poll found that 80 percent of US Americans believe it is possible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.4 This belief is reinforced by the examples of people like Oprah Winfrey who have achieved iconic status in our culture and Horatio Alger’s stories about people who have remarkable experiences of social mobility. Much of the mythology and history of the United States is grounded in the promise of the American Dream that political freedom offers the possibility of prosperity and upward mobility for people, regardless of their class status. While social mobility is certainly possible in the United States, studies show it is not likely. One recent study showed that a son whose father made $16,000 a year (putting him in the lowest 10 percent of wage earners) had only a 5 percent chance of earning over $55,000.5 While the mythology of the American Dream ostensibly gives hope to poor and working-class people that wealth, stardom, and fame are within reach for those who are talented and hardworking, the prominence of rags-toriches stories can also function as a cultural narrative to blame the poor for not working hard enough. Rather than examining the social factors that contribute to increased inequality and lack...

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