With the increasing number of coronavirus infections in the US, many school including colleges/universities are moving classes to virtual instruction online. Students are asked to stay home to continue their semester. Outside of academia, an increasing number of companies are moving to working from home.
For students, online instruction assumes that everyone has resources to access online learning. For instance, not all students may have a desk at home. Recall when I was a college student at Berkeley, the rent there is outrageous. It’s not uncommon for 4 students to share a 2-bedroom apartment, or have someone take the living room. In fact, the apartments are so small that you don’t have space to fit a desk (at least for the places I spent in college). In addition, the less privileged students may have to work part time to support themselves. They may not have access to a laptop or internet. This highlights how easy the more privileged students can adapt to the environment, while the less-privileged ones will suffer from more burden and distress.
Similarly, for people in lower socio-economic class, they tend to be workers who cannot perform their jobs remotely (e.g., food delivery in NYC). While everyone (the more priviledged ones) is panicking about food and complaining about a crying baby at home that distracts them from working at home, workers in lower socio-economic classes often do not even have the option to work remotely. If one argues that the idea for moving to working from home is to reduce social interactions and involuntarily transmitting the virus since people (in NYC) commute to work via mass transit, then perhaps the fact that workers in certain industries will have to continue to work “in person” seems unethical. However, if part of this is to reduce the likelihood of one getting the virus while commuting to work and getting it at work, then workers in lower socio-economic class don’t seem to have any choices. They simply are “assigned” to be at higher risk. I feel a bit uneasy at this idea.
I personally have not stock up on any supplies or food, and am a strong believer that everyone should only continue to shop for the amount they actually consume to maintain a stable number of supplies in stores. Only people with certain income can afford to do so, and by doing so, I feel like the society is signaling that the lower income people that the society doesn’t care about them.
I wish to see actions like this but reaches the lower income class.
In the articles linked below, there are examples of how wealthy people are preparing for the pandemic, including flying on private jets and stocking up food in their “bunkers” 18 floors below ground… link1 link2