Something I'm coming to learn: for any bureaucratic system, those who are most capable of taking advantage of the system are the privileged. Every time we try to arrange a benefit for the poor, infirmed, disadvantaged, disabled, we create a tool for the more privileged to advance themselves. The poor hit a rough spot and they can't hold onto their homes – only the well off can hold their property for decades. Even rent control: who is most able to ward off an eviction? Who can access the legal system? Who can mount their own defense? Who can see the machinations of their own landlord and work in advance to counter? At every turn, when we make a rule, we give a tool to those who can work with rules; if those people were at one time not privileged, they are privileged now, and have been for some time.
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Something I'm coming to learn: for any bureaucratic system, those who are most capable of taking advantage of the system are the privileged. Every time we try to arrange a benefit for the poor, infirmed, disadvantaged, disabled, we create a tool for the more privileged to advance themselves. The poor hit a rough spot and they can't hold onto their homes – only the well off can hold their property for decades. Even rent control: who is most able to ward off an eviction? Who can access the legal system? Who can mount their own defense? Who can see the machinations of their own landlord and work in advance to counter? At every turn, when we make a rule, we give a tool to those who can work with rules; if those people were at one time not privileged, they are privileged now, and have been for some time.
It's as if somehow the privileged elite are actually in control!
It's just that thinking like this switches people into demonization mode rather than problem-solving mode.
Maybe the privileged elite got that way because they are capable and can work the system.