NeoLibertarian Newspeak Analysis:
"Less Fortunate" and "Under Privileged" as synonyms for the "poor"
A tip of the hat goes to Neal Boortz who does an excellent analysis of "Less Fortunate" in his book Somebody's Gotta Say It
Neal's discussion of the term "Less Fortunate" as used to describe the poor correctly points out that this terminology is used to make it seem that:
- The poor have no role in their being poor, since they are just unlucky and conversely that
- The rich have done nothing to earn their money, they just got lucky
Politically this is dynamite: it sets up the poor as deserving of help out of fairness and sets the stage for unlimited taxation of the rich, since they don't 'deserve' their money anyway.
You can extend the same thinking to 'underprivileged." Again, since privilege is granted from some external circumstance, the underprivileged are absolved of any responsibility for their fate and conversely the 'privileged' have done nothing to deserve their status (again since privilege is granted, not earned).