Class privilege is the practice of protecting the economic, political, and social benefits of one class while systematically denying such benefits to other classes. Some of these protected benefits should clearly be enjoyed by all--control over home and work place, access to a good education, influence in the political process.

A number of these protected benefits, while commonly accepted in our society, perhaps should not be granted to anyone--for instance, the right to unlimited accumulation of wealth, and the right to own other people's homes or to control their working conditions. These privileges place a tiny minority's "right" to make money over the majority's right to a decent life.

Eliminating classism means working to abolish these unjust privileges, while finding ways to secure the essential privileges for all.

-- from We Gave Away a Fortune , by Christopher Mogil and Anne Slepian (New Society Publishers, 1992).