{"id":200237,"date":"2021-06-01T20:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T01:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2021\/06\/01\/eat-the-rich-3\/"},"modified":"2021-06-01T20:05:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T01:05:00","slug":"eat-the-rich-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2021\/06\/01\/eat-the-rich-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat the Rich"},"content":{"rendered":"

Am I the only one not surprised that rich people behaved like complete turds throughout the pandemic<\/a>? <\/p>\n

In study after study, the rich are shown to be less charitable, less empathic, and more likely to cheat, so bad behavior is the rule, not the exception: <\/p>\n

Heather checked her phone when a text arrived from her mom saying her wealthy cousin from Los Angeles had just flown to Puerto Rico; it was his annual weeklong fishing trip with the boys and the pandemic wasn\u2019t stopping them. He jetted off to stay in a private house with a chef, housekeeper, and fishing guides.<\/p>\n

It was the peak of the pandemic in California, when 1 in 5 people in LA County were testing positive for COVID-19 in January, and Heather, who is a nurse and asked to be identified only by her first name to protect her privacy, was working a busy shift. \u201cI had double the amount of patients I was legally allowed and they were all on death’s doorstep,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

As the pandemic revealed stark inequalities in American society, it also changed how many people view money and privilege. Sen. Ted Cruz was caught flying to Cancun while Texas buckled under both COVID and a power crisis during a deadly winter storm<\/a>. Kim Kardashian hosted an island birthday romp<\/a> for friends and family in Tahiti while the pandemic raged. They were just two of many wealthy people who were seen carelessly using their vast resources for their own pleasure rather than to help as millions struggled with<\/a> the impacts of COVID: unemployment, displacement, poverty, and hunger. Meanwhile, essential workers like Heather stayed put to provide necessary services, sometimes for low wages.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Jacquelyn Delgado, a 53-year-old graduate student, said years of living in Mamaroneck, New York, an affluent area, prepared her for how the wealthy would respond in a crisis. \u201cRich people gonna rich people<\/span><\/b>,\u201d she told BuzzFeed News.
<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Emphasis mine<\/i>) <\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI fully expected the wealthy to do what they always do,\u201d said Delgado. \u201cAnd it was the Trump era, so \u2018Screw you, I got mine\u2019 was just lived out loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not alone in seeing wealth impact her friendships. Sheeny Ng, a college student from Los Angeles, said a group of her high school friends started posting videos on Snapchat of their trip to Hawaii to celebrate a 21st birthday party before any of them had been vaccinated. \u201cThe wealthier ones are able to travel and not care whether it would impact low-income and marginalized communities that don’t have access to healthcare resources,\u201d she told BuzzFeed News. \u201cWealth and money are so powerful, yet toxic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Nikki, a 32-year-old teacher who lost her job because of the pandemic, watched in frustration as her siblings-in-law flew to Hawaii on the same day Los Angeles implemented a stay-at-home order. \u201cThey remind me of Daisy and Tom in Gatsby, not caring about the destruction they might leave in their wake<\/span><\/b>,\u201d said Nikki, who lives in San Diego and asked not to be identified by her full name. \u201cI think the pandemic really actually unmasked us all,\u201d she said. Nikki hasn\u2019t allowed them to see her newborn baby due to safety concerns from their reckless travel.
<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Emphasis mine<\/i>) <\/p>\n


\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Watching people host parties maskless, eat indoors, and go to clubs while hundreds of thousands of people were dying and receiving little support from their government pushed Holly Bruneau, a 34-year-old from Minneapolis who works in nonprofits, deeper into progressive politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a tree-hugging liberal, now I\u2019m a pissed-off socialist,\u201d she said.
<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your mouth to God’s ear, Ms. Bruneau.<\/p>\n

The Calvinist conflation of wealth and virtue has permeated the culture of the United States, and it’s an unalloyed evil.<\/p>\n

F%$# the Pilgrims and their Plymouth Colony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Am I the only one not surprised that rich people behaved like complete turds throughout the pandemic? In study after study, the rich are shown to be less charitable, less empathic, and more likely to cheat, so bad behavior is the rule, not the exception: Heather checked her phone when a text arrived from her …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1092,969,1143,1285,1003,1021,1024],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-evil","category-inequality","category-pandemic","category-philosophy","category-religion","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}