Weathering Out COVID-19: the Wealthy vs. the Poor

Kevin Nguyen

Mr. Storer

World Literature, Period 1

3 November 2020

Weathering Out COVID-19: the Wealthy vs. the Poor

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a plethora of economic and financial issues felt across the world. Every part of society has been affected one way or another, from the wealthiest of people to the most destitute. However, now that people are isolated yet more connected than ever, misconceptions about both sides of the scale have arisen, with little done to find the truths since people can decide what they want to see or hear. Rumors have spread without solid facts and evidence to back them up, such as how there is a belief that all wealthy people are sailing along just fine during this pandemic, or how all poor people are carriers and catalysts for the coronavirus. For a better society, both the wealthy and the poor must see the truths behind each side’s struggles and establish a consensus where both parties can work towards bettering the community and the nation as a whole in order to make a better recovery. Keep in mind, this paper is written as of November of 2020 with information from the previous six months — the economic situation within the U.S. may have improved since then. 

Though there is much more of an unwavering stigma around the wealthy, mainly about how they’re able to weather through COVID-19 just fine, it is not all true, but there are good reasons as to why this became apparent in the first place. The main contributor to this, though, are celebrities and influencers who share their loft and luxurious lifestyle during the pandemic, stating that they’re with the people during these hard times. This, of course, then created envy within the lower echelons of society. However, not all of America’s wealthy had the leisure of stability. Plenty of the self-employed and small business owners had suffered great losses from this pandemic. Whether it be from losing their employees or even going into bankruptcy (Wu). These people aren’t the wealthy giants of the nation, but it goes to show that not every single rich person can escape from COVID-19’s grasp. They are real people, with real struggles, and real emotions. They have worked to get where they are, yet have lost almost everything to this pandemic. 

Then there are the wealthy who are doing well despite all the chaos, who actually end up benefitting from the pandemic. For those who haven’t lost too much for the past six months, things are looking great for them. Higher-paying jobs are rebounding now that most of them can be done from home at a computer and on a much larger scale, big companies such as Nike or Best Buy are at their highest in stocks even (Long). It’s even projected that within the next couple of decades, the wealthy of the U.S. would see an increase of 30% in the population and purchasing power (Wu). The upper echelons of society are well on their way to a full recovery and rebound. But how about the poor?

The main stigma around the poor that is harbored by the upper and middle classes are mainly about the spread of COVID-19. They tend to avoid the less well-off parts of society with the assumption that all poor people have a higher chance of carrying and spreading the virus. Though this is statistically true, minorities and those in poorer parts of town suffer from these issues without much ability to change their situation (Thomas). This is due to many factors, from population density, their standard of living, job opportunities, and more. Unfortunately, there are also those who foolishly party and go around maskless, dubbed the anti-maskers, but they can be found in any part of society (Nuzzo). Under pressure from social and financial stresses, COVID-19 amplifies these stresses and issues even further. From densely packed homes with mouths to feed to being unable to buy all products needed to stay safe during the pandemic, the poor are backed into a dilemma that is out of their control. They are stuck between two options, to either risk exposing their family and loved ones to COVID-19, or to miss a vital paycheck (Thomas). It also does not help that a lot of businesses and companies have laid off a large percentage of their workers. This means that the poor, already left in worse conditions, have lost their source of income. Even though there are unemployment benefits, they usually aren’t enough to cover all living expenses, meaning the poor are now living in fear of eviction, not even sure if they would be able to make it to the next month. Although this past summer has seen an average of a 10% increase in job opportunities, there is still a large percentage of the population going unemployed. This is because, after quarantine, there was about a 30% dip in employment for lower-wage jobs (Long). This is not enough for the recovery of the poor.  So, what should be done?

There needs to be a consensus. The rich have money and power, the poor don’t. Though it isn’t as easy as just transferring money from one place to another, otherwise we wouldn’t have a social hierarchy or this issue to even begin with. The patterns in data about COVID-19 and its spread should be accurately communicated to make sure the public would understand why these patterns occur. This would then help those understand and predict where resources and services should be focused on. The wealthy such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have already provided services and donations to charity to aid those in need during these times. However, that is not enough. The wealthy and the poor need to come to realize each other’s differences, where the wealthy support the poor, while the poor continue to support society as its backbone. With this ideology in mind, we can put America back on track towards recovery, not just as a nation, but as its people.

 Annotated Bibliography

Long, Heather. “The Recession Is Over for the Rich.” The Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2020, 

www.washingtonpost.com/road-to-recovery/2020/08/13/recession-is-over-rich-working-c

lass-is-far-recovered/. 

In this article by the Washington Post, Heather Long explains how the rich have

 made a recovery from the coronavirus, whilst the poor and working-class are far from being recovered. Long states that although it is to be expected that recessions always impact lower-wage workers the hardest, this pandemic is creating an especially large gap between the rich and the poor. This is because jobs are fully back for high-wage earners since most of it can be done from home at a computer, online, while a lot of lower-wage jobs require a worker to be physically present. On a larger scale, there’s a large gap forming between big and small businesses as well, where large companies are enjoying their highest stock prices ever, while small businesses are fighting for survival. This overall slow job rebound for the lower echelons of society results in many people and minorities struggling to make it to the next month, or next day even. Many families are fearful of eviction, unsure if they would be able to make next month’s rent. This sense of helplessness, as well as mental and financial fatigue, only contributes to slowing the recovery even slower, maybe even resulting in a decline in some parts of society. There is a huge disconnect between the upper and lower levels of the social ladder. If the higher-ups paid attention and listened to what the people really need, then the vision of America covering from this pandemic seems even more feasible.

Nuzzo, Jennifer. “Epidemiology: Understanding the Spread of COVID-19.” Johns Hopkins 

Coronavirus Resource Center, Johns Hopkins University, 2020, coronavirus.jhu.edu/covid-19-basics/understanding-covid-19/module-4-epidemiology-understanding-the-spread-of-covid-19#/. 

Dr. Nuzzo’s digital course provides an explanation as to why it’s important to understand the spread of disease and how the study of epidemiology assists in slowing down and reducing the rate of spread. The course also includes topics such as how the issue is increasing in complexity as the world is more connected than ever and why there are different COVID-19 trends in different countries or even within different parts of a country. Dr. Nuzzo then discusses the importance of examining the pandemic as a whole rather than looking at just the patients, as the epidemiologists are looking for patterns to determine where to best allocate resources and surveillance, whereas discovering the cure and tending to the affected are left to other medical fields. 

Thomas, Karen, and Dayna Myers. “Racism and COVID-19.” Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health

  Magazine, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 6 July 2020, 

magazine.jhsph.edu/2020/racism-and-covid-19. 

In this interview with Lisa A. Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, Cooper discusses how racism affects COVID-19 cases in African American and minority communities, along with providing solutions for the injustices. Cooper states that even before the current pandemic, minority groups were already greatly impacted by health inequities. These issues include higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease, meaning that those that already have complications would be at a higher risk of getting seriously, or even fatally, ill. These preexisting health inequities stem from financial stresses as well as the social stresses of being from a marginalized group. However, since these groups are being highlighted, the higher-risk populations will begin to get stigmatized by others. This leads to even further bias and negative stereotyping of these minority groups during the pandemic. However, Cooper states that this will also lead to the population questioning if the current laws and organizational practices do provide all with equal opportunities to be and stay healthy. To fix some of these immediate issues, Cooper suggests that patterns and data should be communicated to make sure the public would understand why these patterns occur, as well as to highlight how it’s more about society and the way resources are allocated rather than individual behaviors. 

“US: Address Impact of Covid-19 on Poor.” Human Rights Watch, 19 Mar. 2020,

 www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/us-address-impact-covid-19-poor#. 

The Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) article provides an explanation as to why the more impoverished areas of a community, town, or city are more susceptible to COVID-19. The article states that although it is true that COVID-19 infects people indiscriminately, the poor will be the most affected by the pandemic. This is due to the deep-rooted segregation of society by income and race, where low-income communities have a higher chance to be exposed to the virus and have higher mortality rates, as well as suffer economically. During this pandemic, these vulnerabilities become more pronounced. The people of these communities have to choose between a missed paycheck or risking their health along with their family’s health. Though, to feed their families, the workers are backed into a corner where they have no other option but to keep on working. This is when the HRW proposes that the government should target the economic stimulus packages toward the low-income communities that have been hit by COVID-19, to ensure that they would sustain an adequate standard of living. 

Wu, Kelsey, et al. “How Is COVID-19 Affecting America's Rich?” Brookings, 28 July

2020, www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/07/28/how-is-covid-19-affecting-americas-rich/#:~:text=Based%20on%20our%20COVID%2Dadjusted,greatest%20COVID%2Dcaused%20decline%20worldwide. 

The Brookings article provides an analysis of how the current pandemic has affected those within the upper class, as well as providing economic projections and data. The article starts off by emphasizing how wealthy the top ten richest U.S. states are, stating that the purchasing power of those states equal to roughly 30 percent of the United States’ purchasing power. With their predictions, Brookings believes that “America’s rich will have a daily spending power of $19.9 billion by the end of 2020,” That is a $3.5 billion decrease from the previous year. Despite this, the rich population is projected to have the highest growth within the next decade, with predictions saying that they will greatly increase in both population size and spending power. This means that although the wealthy have definitely taken a hit from COVID-19, with the virus affecting businesses and financial institutions, the wealthy would still be able to weather through it and possibly come out better.