The more privileged your class background, the more likely it is that criminal behaviour at this age will be construed as a "mistake" – the product of youthful high spirits and something you'll inevitably grow out of in time.
To listen to our political leaders talk today, you'd think the Statue of Liberty read: "Give me your privileged, your rich, your trust fund kids wanting a secure place to reside" (special thanks to Sojourners for providing the great graphic, which I encourage everyone to Like).
"If you are twenty-six years old, you've been a golden child, you've been wealthy all your life, you've been privileged all your life, you've been successful your whole life, of course you don't think anybody would ever have anything to hide," Anil Dash, a blogging pioneer who was the first employee of Six Apart, the maker of Movable Type, said.
If you are born rich, in a rich area, the likelihood is that you will find a way – or will have ways come to you – to stay wealthy and privileged throughout your life, and your children will do the same.
Years ago, if you were from a privileged background, your career was more or less restricted to land management and the more shadowy areas of banking.
If you go to Eton you will have been academically selected out of an already privileged pool, your parents will be able to afford £29,000-a-year fees, plus extras, a sum that exceeds the income of most British citizens.
Embrace a conspiracy theory and suddenly you're part of a gang sharing privileged information; your sense of power and dignity rises a smidgen and this troublesome world makes more sense, for a time.
You are privileged if your life is so unaffected by these issues that you are able choose to roll over in your bed, ignore them, and still sleep soundly at night.
You are privileged in your ability to have these conversations because many women don't have the option of staying at home, or letting their man open jars because there is no man.
If you are using a subpoena duces tecum to view "privileged" communications, your request will likely be challenged in court.
This is the clue that gives away the game: Taxes to pay down the debt are an actual sacrifice today in order to help tomorrow; cutting safety net spending to pay for further tax cuts is redistributing wealth from your opponent's less privileged constituents to your own more privileged ones.
