@mapman
there are many degrees of privilege, it’s not binary. Both my wife and I have worked extraordinarily hard all our lives to achieve the levels of success we have. My wife was “privileged” to attend a wonderful public school in Fairfax County, Virginia because her father was a school teacher in the county. But due to an ugly divorce, she received zero support from either of her parents, and worked from the age of 16 to put herself thru college and law school at local universities.
Although my grandfather was a tenant farmer, my father was able to achieve upper middle class status by putting himself thru college on the GI bill after joining the Navy at age 17. He paid for me to go to a prestigious private school, Northwestern undergrad, and Harvard for graduate school. Again, both my wife and I worked our asses off, but I’d say it’s pretty obvious I was more privileged (not even taking into account my white, male status).
Having said that, there are many who are way more privileged than me, people who didn’t have to earn their way into highly selective universities and incredibly lucrative careers because of their wealth and family connections, etc. So I think “privilege” is a pretty nuanced concept.