Don’t worry about your privilege. Worry about yourself. 

I dipped into an ongoing Facebook conversation – something I never do – in response to someone confessing to being “privileged.” I did so, against my better judgement, because it gave me an opportunity to set down some thoughts I’ve recently had on the subject of privilege in the context of succeeding in the world of wealth building (and in every competitive arena I can think of).

Here is what I wrote:

“So long as you worry about these economic issues as social problems, you will do nothing to solve them. The solution – the only solution whether you like it or not – is to think of them as your problems.

“Don’t ask yourself what can be done to protect all those underprivileged people. Ask yourself, ‘Given these trends and accepting the fact that some of these predictions may prove out, how can I provide for the current and future living costs of myself and my family.’

“Stop wasting your time, endangering your dependents, and wasting the time of all the millions of underprivileged you don’t really give a shit about. Spend your time and energy on your #1 responsibility as a human being living in a community of human beings – and that is earning the income to pay for your own expenses and those of your dependents.

“You should do that not only because it is the right thing to do ethically, but also because you understand that you can never achieve much for ‘others’ by trying to solve macro-economic and political problems socially and politically.

“Do the hard thing instead. The moral thing. Pay the full price of your own burden to society and the burden of your dependents. After you have done that, if you have money left, then you should extend beyond your immediate family. Not by throwing money at political and social organizations. They are naturally and inevitably corrupt and inefficient. Instead, do the right thing – which is, again, the hard thing.

“Take responsibility for saving one person at a time. When you do that, you will immediately feel the quicksand that social and political programs are built on: that money alone is insufficient to help anyone move above the swamp of poverty. It is nearly a full-time job. Just like the job of trying to make responsible, independent people of your own children.”