Privilege can be measured in a lot of ways. Personally, I believe the clearest measure is fettuccine Alfredo. It’s not just the quality of the meal, but how quickly and easily you can get it. Privilege is more than the dish. It is the ease of access.  

At the very top, Alfredo is instant. Effortless. You want it, you order it, and someone else makes it by hand, preferably someone skilled, in a space where you don’t have to be exposed to the heat or the mess. You get the quality of homemade without lifting a finger, because money erases the work.  

Then, you have convenience. This means you did not pay someone else to cook it fresh, and you did not make it from scratch. Maybe it is premade noodles with jarred sauce, maybe it is a frozen tray you just heat up. Either way, it is faster, it is edible, and it saves you the trouble of the hard parts. You are still buying shortcuts. The only difference is whether you assembled them yourself or let someone else do it first.  

The final way means starting from scratch and making it for yourself. You do not have the money to buy takeout, frozen, or premade. You are lucky if you can even afford the essential ingredients. You knead the dough, roll the noodles, stir the sauce, grate the cheese. Hours of labor for the same plate someone else can summon with a phone call.  

And let us be clear. I do not believe this is the worst way. I believe it is the most real, and food tastes better when you make it fresh yourself. But in this society, time can be scarce. Most people do not have the hours to make their own plate, especially when they are already spending their time working, serving, or cooking for others.  

Here is the other thing about privilege. It does not only shorten the distance to Alfredo, it distorts how you see the work itself. Someone who has always had Alfredo appear on their plate might walk into a kitchen, see flour, cream, and eggs, and say, “What are you doing? Get all this stuff out of here. We are supposed to be making fettuccine Alfredo.” They do not recognize the ingredients as the meal in progress, because they have never had to turn them into anything. To them, Alfredo is only the finished plate, never the labor that makes it possible.

So yes, you can have Alfredo anytime you want, and that is something to be grateful for. But never let someone who pays others to do the work tell you that you’re making a mess when they don’t even know the ingredients. The abuse of privilege is expecting homemade Alfredo on demand, while refusing to learn what it takes to make it.