Wealth and ‘windshield perspective’ assert their dominance during COVID-19 response

The slow COVID-19 response from leadership at the federal and state level seems to have been tailor made to suit people who earn salaries instead of hourly wages. Also, people with the ability to drive cars, who own large houses (along with their room for exercise equipment and grocery hoarding), and who have private yards for their kids to play in.

Wealth and ‘windshield perspective’ have asserted their dominance once again, this time during a pandemic, privileging Americans who are best suited to wait out a long period of social distancing.

If leaders really cared about hourly-wage families who get around without cars and who live in small homes — people who rely more heavily on the shared things like parks, playgrounds, and transit that have reduced access now — they would have implemented strict shut-downs immediately, several weeks ago, so as not to drag this ordeal out longer.

This longer time frame harms people who need to get back to hourly jobs, and who need to use shared spaces. We should have acted with speed and boldness. We should have had government-led delivery of groceries and more to help the neediest. We should have closed lanes to cars on streets that house low-income people in small apartments, who need a wide space for walking while distancing.

Instead, we’ve experienced a weak, drawn-out response that escalated slowly, thus hurting the most vulnerable among us the hardest on levels of income, health, and mental wellbeing. After going through a tough experience with being shut in, many of those folks hurting the most will still suffer because of wage loss.

How very convenient for wealthy, salaried people embedded in car-centric places, who can ride out the storm while feeling proud of their individualism. They’ll feel rewarded for having “pulled themselves up by the bootstraps” into a position of privilege. What they mainly did was pull up the ladder, making sure no one from other demographic groups could experience some level of security during the crisis.