Time and time again, those who are the worst off in society are the hardest hit by extremes. Extreme inflation, debt, weather, and in the case of 2020; an extreme pandemic. 2020 saw the world come to a screeching halt and the systems in place failed left and right. The WHO and the CDC dropped the ball in alerting the world in late 2019, the US Government downplayed the seriousness of the virus in early 2020, and then in March of 2020 the system reached its breaking point. Dairy farmers poured millions of gallons of milk down the drain as there was no place for them to send it. With schools and corporate office buildings closed, the back end of the food chain had been broken and now the front end of food chain was going to suffer the consequences. Farmers faced a backlog of goods that needed distribution to facilitate the next harvest. The shutdown of 2020 effected the entire food system, and those who had the least were affected the most.
People that worked in retail and service industry jobs were either laid off and forced to take unemployment or had to take second jobs as ‘essential’ workers. These low wage positions further exposed the impoverished to the risk of COVID-19. Many of these workers were minorities in poverty, and the system required that they put their lives on the line so that it would not come crashing down. Grocery workers, agricultural workers, meat packing plants, restaurant cooks and servers, the entire food system leaned on these workers and leaned hard. Did their wages go up? Did they see significant changes to their work environments? Were they respected more? No, they were not. They were tossed aside like they always have been, ‘the help’, subservient working-class members of society whose responsibility it was to ensure that the wheels of capitalism did not stop turning.
Just as during a time of war there is war profiteering, the pandemic has shown us that nothing changes in the minds of the wealthy. With hundreds of thousands dying and millions out of work and not knowing where their next meal was going to come from, the ultra-rich of the world saw their wealth grow considerably. Profiting off the pain and suffering of the world is nothing new, what is different this time is how profit was absorbed and how quickly. U.S. billionaires saw a 21.5% increase on their wealth during the height of the lockdown. The transfer of wealth into the pockets of billionaires has left the working-class with the burden of survival during one of the most difficult periods in living memory.
As a society the onus to protect the poor and ensure that people are secure during times of turmoil lay with the government. Our elected officials have the responsibility to care for the lower and middle class that is so essential to the survival of our society. The opportunity to step-up and demand justice has been missed by a political process that is so polarized that not even members within the same party can agree. The oligarchs in congress that open handedly take ‘campaign donations’ and owe favors to their benefactors, do no service to their constituents. They make promises that they never intend to keep and continually leave the poor and working-class citizens behind. Without campaign finance reform, the people that make our laws will continue to make decisions that benefit themselves and the rich elite that they serve. This leaves many people to fend for themselves and with no options for growth. Without a ladder to climb out of poverty, the poor will almost always take the least expense route. Specifically, in the food sector this means cheap, nutritionally lacking ‘food’, with high hidden costs.
Links
https://www.statista.com/chart/21204/american-jobs-at-risk-due-to-coronavirus-outbreak/