Abolishing vulnerability

"How would you prevent vulnerable people from being taken advantage of?"

One of the most frequent questions I get, and the easiest to answer!

Give them equal legal, social, and economic power, and they won't be "vulnerable" anymore.

When people are stripped of their rights, they become vulnerable to abuses by people who have more rights and can coerce people with fewer rights to bend to their will. When people are routinely discredited and disbelieved, they become vulnerable to abuses by people with greater social credibility who can confidently know that they can abuse their lower-status victims whose accusations will never be believed. When people lack the material resources needed to live their lives, they become vulnerable to abuses by people who can control access to those resources.

The "vulnerability" of poor, disabled, and otherwise marginalized people is a consequence of social inequality, which is then used to justify further marginalization in the name of "protecting" these "vulnerable" people from "being taken advantage of."

If everyone has equal legal, social, and economic rights, they cease to be vulnerable, and interactions with others cease to be "taking advantage."