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Celerity

(42,666 posts)
Wed Apr 15, 2020, 07:58 PM Apr 2020

How the Coronavirus Could Create a New Working Class

Experts predict the outbreak will lead to a rise in populism. But will workers turn their rage toward corporate CEOs, or middle-class “elites”?

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-class-war-just-beginning/609919/



Late last month, a photo circulated of delivery drivers crowding around Carbone, a Michelin-starred Greenwich Village restaurant, waiting to pick up $32 rigatoni and bring it to people who were safely ensconced in their apartment. A police officer, attempting to spread out the crowd, reportedly said, “I know you guys are just out here trying to make money. I personally don’t give a shit!” The poor got socially close, it seems, so that the rich could socially distance. The past few weeks have exposed just how much a person’s risk of infection hinges on class. Though people of all incomes are at risk of being laid off, those who can work from home are at least less likely to get sick. The low-income workers who do still have jobs, meanwhile, are likely to be stuck in close quarters with other humans. For example, grocery-store clerks face some of the greatest exposure to the coronavirus, aside from health-care workers. “Essential” businesses—grocery stores, pharmacies—are about the only places Americans are still permitted to go, and their cashiers stand less than an arm’s length from hundreds of people a day.

My inboxes have filled up with outcries from workers at big-box retailers, grocery stores, and shipping giants who say their companies are not protecting them. They say people are being sent into work despite having been in contact with people infected with the virus. They say the company promised to pay for their quarantine leave, but the payment has been delayed for weeks and they are running out of money. Or the company denied their medical leave because they don’t have proof of a nearly impossible-to-get COVID-19 test. Or the company doesn’t offer paid medical leave at all, and they’re wondering how they’ll pay for gas once they recover from the disease. Masks are in short supply nationwide, and some managers have resisted allowing workers to wear them, fearing it will disrupt the appearance of normalcy. Some companies have rolled out “hazard pay” for employees, but in many cases it amounts to about $2 more an hour. The Amazon employees I’ve spoken with largely work fewer than 30 hours a week, and the company does not provide them with health insurance. One Walmart employee used up all his attendance “points” while sick with the virus, and was fired upon his return to work. (Walmart did not comment on his situation for my story.) At least 41 grocery-store workers have already died from the virus. “I make $14.60 an hour and don’t qualify for health care yet,” one grocery-store employee in New Mexico wrote to me. “I am freaked out.”

Meanwhile, many white-collar workers have no “points” system. Many such jobs offer as much paid time off as an employee and her manager agree to—a concept far beyond even the most generous policies at grocery stores. Many PR specialists, programmers, and other white-collar workers are doing their exact same job, except from the comfort of their home. Some are at risk of being laid off. But for the most part, they are not putting their lives in danger, except by choice. Wealthier people also have fewer underlying health conditions that exacerbate COVID-19. And they are more likely to be practicing social distancing effectively, according to Gallup. Perhaps this is because they don’t need to leave the house as much for their livelihood: Gallup also found that 71 percent of people making more than $180,000 can work from home during the pandemic, compared with just 41 percent of those making less than $24,000. According to a recent analysis by The New York Times, the well-off are staying home the most, especially during the workweek, and they also began practicing social distancing earlier than low-income workers did.

“Self-isolation is an economic luxury,” says Justin Gest, a public-policy professor at George Mason University and the author of The New Minority. For those working-class people who do still have jobs, “it probably requires a physical presence somewhere that exposes them to the virus.” At the same time, it isn’t as if grocery workers can simply stop coming to work. More self-checkouts could be used and more contact-free deliveries could be made, but someone has to get the Cheerios off the truck and onto the shelves. We are, through this virus, seeing who the truly “essential” workers are. It’s not the people who get paid to write tweets all day, but the people who keep the tweeters in chickpeas and Halo Top. Epidemics and other natural disasters tend to both illuminate and reinforce existing schisms. “The division in our society between those of us who can keep our jobs and work from home and others who are losing their jobs or confronting the dangers of the virus … I think there’s a real chance that it could become more intense,” says Peter Hall, a government professor at Harvard.

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cayugafalls

(5,631 posts)
1. Not so sure I like the idea of trying to pit the middle class against the lower class as they
Wed Apr 15, 2020, 08:32 PM
Apr 2020

seem to move transparently among each other in our society. All it takes is losing your job or a severe illness and that middle class family can find themselves on the street or losing everything very quickly.

Peter Hall seems to minimize the contributions of the middle class with his statement "people who get paid to write tweets all day" as if they are a majority of the middle class and deserve his ire. Not realizing that critical infrastructure is kept afloat by these very same middle class workers as the vast majority of them DO not tweet all day.

For example, workers at logistics companies who can work from home now are doing a critical job in keeping commerce flowing, without them, commerce stops and all those grocery store employees have nothing to stock the shelves.

There is a synergy that exists between the middle class and the blue collar worker that this article seems to have overlooked.

We are all essential, trying to start a class war that does not focus on the Upper Class is simply trying to shift the blame.

At least that is my opinion.

Celerity

(42,666 posts)
5. trying to pit the middle class against the lower class is the Trumpian play, one that the author
Wed Apr 15, 2020, 11:03 PM
Apr 2020

(Olga Khazan) opposes.

Peter Hall (who is not the author) did not say anything about tweets btw.

this is what he said

“The division in our society between those of us who can keep our jobs and work from home and others who are losing their jobs or confronting the dangers of the virus … I think there’s a real chance that it could become more intense,” says Peter Hall, a government professor at Harvard.

cayugafalls

(5,631 posts)
6. You are right, I attributed the tweet statement incorrectly. The author made the assertion.
Wed Apr 15, 2020, 11:50 PM
Apr 2020

My point still stands. I felt the author presented the work of the middle class as non-essential. I refer again to the author's statement;

We are, through this virus, seeing who the truly “essential” workers are. It’s not the people who get paid to write tweets all day, but the people who keep the tweeters in chickpeas and Halo Top.

I make the claim that the middle class worker is essential, in fact critical to the running of the country.

All I was trying to say was that the Khazan, in presenting the disparity in such a way as to minimize the essential work being done by middle class employees -- "tweeters", "Bushwick Bloggers" -- does a disservice to the essential work done each day by individuals doing professional jobs where working from home is an option.

While it is obvious the author opposes pitting the middle class against the lower class, I merely feel it could have been stated a little more clearly had Khazan not used denigrating examples in her text.

I feel there was a perfect opportunity to show that a synergy exist between the two classes that the author missed.

Perhaps, I need to dissect the article more to ascertain nuances that I may have missed.

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify

Wounded Bear

(58,440 posts)
2. Pitting the middle class against the lower class favors the upper class...
Wed Apr 15, 2020, 08:34 PM
Apr 2020

been standard tactics for centuries.

keithbvadu2

(36,369 posts)
4. Spitting on grocery store employee. He got b_tch-slapped.
Wed Apr 15, 2020, 10:47 PM
Apr 2020

Spitting on grocery store employee.

He got b_tch-slapped.

He deserved it.


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