Postcoronial divide: The four new social classes that have emerged in pandemic-stricken America
At one point in time, everyone was out on the streets, living their lives, and making merry. No one expected that a viral pandemic would turn the world upside down in the next few months, but here we are, home-bound, fearing for our safety and navigating our way through a chaotic time. The losses are magnanimous and the economy is crumbling, as we speak. Yet there's not much we can do except adhere to the preventive measures and pray that this pandemic subsides.
Meanwhile, amid this crisis, a new type of social division has emerged, pretty much deepening the class divide that has pre-existed for a long time. There are four new classes on the rise and large fractions of the American population fit into each of these sections.
The remote workers
With the US declaring a state of emergency last month and a mandated shutdown, causing businesses to halt all on-site activity. Companies were scrambling to device a robust plan to ensure that the work can go in, despite people having to resort to working remotely.
The work-from-home situation has forced many employees in the professional, managerial, and technical departments to work from the comfort of their homes. The companies that employ people in the digital economy have it easier than the ones now slowly easing into this new alternative way of working. While it may be a welcome change to most, it is hard to suddenly have to adapt to working remotely because it requires strategic planning and all the resources to ensure that they are equipped for long-distance work. They're clocking into work via their personal computers and laptops, with video calling applications like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Skype serving as the platform that brings them together for conferences and meetings.
A 2017 State of the American Workplace study conducted by Gallup concluded that 43 percent of employees often work remotely. The research points out that in a regular five-day workweek, it is common to opt for work from home for two or three of the days and it renders productivity. This means that they get two to three days to focus on collaborating, meetings and interactions, and the rest of the days are dedicated to the work. While working from home seems like a logical option, not all Americans have this privilege because of a number of limitations, one being the access to the internet and another being that some industry jobs can't be done remotely.
In the long run, remote working can lead to a myriad of shortcomings like boredom or a worker's anxiety kicking in and at the rate that it's going right now, this might be a new reality for most people, the new normal. Still, they're better off compared to the other classes.
The essential workers
The crisis has clarified who exactly Americans deem essential for stabilizing the country as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. Essential workers comprise about 30% of the workforce and include nurses, doctors, child care workers, the police, firefighters, the military, farmers, grocers, truck drivers, drug store employees, sanitation workers, and food service workers. Every day these people put their lives on the line and health at risk to ensure that the rest of the people are making it through the day with all the essentials that they need.
They continued to get paid for their work, but they're just as stressed as the rest of us, as the coronavirus cases increase exponentially across the country. Inadequate supply in protective gear and even benefits as paid sick leaves, health insurance, and childcare for their children that are now homebound are scarce. In addition, they deserve hazard pay which they aren't exactly being given.
They are more susceptible to contracting the virus, and this has also sparked various debates and worker activism in companies like Amazon, Whole Food, Walmart, and Instacart. Mass transit workers have been protesting for curtailing work. Trump's Occupational Saftey and Health Administration is obligated to ensure that private employers provide essential workers with protective gear. Despite that, there have been reports that many doctors and nurses have been treating victims of the virus without masks or gloves or other forms of protection.
The unemployed and the unpaid
Roughly 26.4 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past few weeks, which makes up about 15 percent of the total US workforce. In the wake of the pandemic, many businesses have shut down to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and with the economy plummeting, workers have either been furloughed or laid off, left and right. While Trump's administration took measures to support smaller businesses, they haven't been left unscathed by the pandemic. The $349 billion loan program that the government had extended towards empowering the smaller business ran out of funds within just two weeks, with many well-established businesses seeking monetary support.
The unpaid are another group of people currently struggling to make ends meet during the crisis. They're a larger chunk of the populace that is without a job closing in on roughly 25 percent and resonating with the same number of unpaid during the Great Depression of 1929. Most of the unpaid have been furloughed, ie, forced to take a leave of absence from their jobs without pay or have used up their designated paid leaves.
According to the Pew Research Center, so far at least 43 percent of adults have reported that they or someone in their family have lost a job or their pay. Furthermore, approximately 9.2 million people have lost their health insurance, extended to them from the employer. Most of these jobs comprise positions in retail, restaurants, or the hospitality industry, which can't exactly be done remotely. Consumers are beginning to curb unnecessary spending, while employees across media, tech, and consumer-goods companies are being laid off.
The need of the moment for unpaid is cash to feed their family and pay the rent to keep a roof on their head during this crucial time. Less than half of the unpaid population have enough emergency funds or savings to last them through the next three months of the crisis, per a survey by Pew. The government had also been an utter disappointment for them. The Treasury mailed out checks last week, with an inadequate allowance and while unemployment offices could be aiding the unpaid during these unprecedented times, they are overwhelmed by the claims piling up that it's difficult for them to provide monetary assistance.
On April 22, Mitch McConnel, the Republican Senate majority leader stated his disagreement with providing any further federal aid to state and local governments and suggested that states declare bankruptcy, instead. That would essentially mean lesser funds for unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and other necessities that the unpaid would require. In turn, desperation has sparked demands to "reopen the economy", even before it has been declared safe to do so, and they would rather risk their lives than go without basic necessities.
The vulnerable
The vulnerable comprise those people that are often left out of being mentioned as a high risk of contracting the disease. This includes the fraction of the population that are unable to practice the social-distancing and 6-foot-distance preventive measure, simply because they live in shelters that are constricting and cramped like prisons, jails, immigrant shelters, Native American reservations, homeless shelters, nursing homes, etc.
In New York City, a reported 17,000 men and women, out of which many have underlying health conditions, are dwelling in about 100 shelters across the country that house single adults. The cause for concern here is that these locations are also hotspots with active cases of the virus. These people are highly likely to get infected are in dire need of proper medical facilities, social-distancing, testing facilities, and quarantine for those that may have contracted it. However, only a select few have access to any of this.
Among the essential workers, the unemployed and unpaid and the vulnerable, are a disproportionate number of poor black and Latino people, who are also those that are becoming increasingly infected by COVID-19. According to a demographical breakdown by the Associated Press of the accessible state and local data, nearly 33 percent of those that have died from the virus are African-American (14 percent of the population in the areas comprising the survey). The death toll in the Navajo Nation has already surpassed the fatalities in 13 states. Four of the 10 largest known sources of infection in the US have been the correctional facilities.