Joblessness and Ridicule Cause Anger to Erupt

As of April 14, 2020, over 30 million Americans have found themselves unemployed in developments that only took place over the past few months. What’s so shocking for so many is that the industries haven’t failed. America’s economy was thriving, in fact, with manufacturing jobs pouring back into the nation. It’s that Covid-19 has shut so much of the economy down that most jobs are labeled as unessential and millions of Americans are now suffering.

One thing that is working to increase the anger of Americans is to hear the wealthy celebrities, politicians and media personnel ridicule them for simply wanting to work. While politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are causing great fervor among her base by insisting that all Americans refuse to work, there’s a healthy portion of America who do not feel the same. They want to get back to work. They demand it. They have rent, need groceries, need medicine, and want their jobs back.

However, there are more and more people coming out in public in the United States who are viewing unemployed, desperate people as a nuisance, with some even comparing them to Nazis.

Some news anchors and high-profile celebrity Twitter users compared the recent economic protests to Neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, which left a young woman dead. Patton Oswalt, a comedian and actor, stated that these people simply want to get into “Fuddruckers,” in order to eat.

Tens of thousands of people have been protesting sporadically around America in recent weeks. Not to protest politicians, or for a higher minimum wage, but simply because they want their jobs back. And in the midst of fighting not to starve or become homeless, America’s wealthy and political class have done quite a job ridiculing the under-classes of America who simply want to work.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was on record at a press conference on April 13 angrily telling unemployed people to just get over it. “It’s not as bad as dying,” Cuomo stated, as he suggested New York’s unemployed just go “get jobs as essential workers,” so that they could make money.

Wherever one happens to stand on this topic, it is important to realize that these protests are driven by one glaring fact: Over 30 million Americans have lost their jobs this year.

As an anonymous source stated inside of the Labor Department, “It’s not as if these people are just angry their check it late. They’re desperate because all their checks have been cancelled.” This is a sentiment many wealthy, elite-class Americans seem unable to grasp. People are terrified and are suffering, unable to buy food or pay bills. They’re not out protesting the right to have block parties. They want their jobs back.

The Disconnect Widens

The famous line attributed to Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake,” was allegedly said in response to her witnessing the suffering of the plebian class in France. She was referencing the fact that, rather than starve, the rabble should simply “eat cake," just like she was doing. This comment epitomizes the disconnect between the upper and lower classes in society, with people in the upper echelon rarely having any idea about how the other half live. Most everyone agrees: Those starving, desperate French people would have gladly eaten cake, if they could have afforded to do so.

Cuomo, Ocasio-Cortez, Oswalt, and so many others seem to be missing something fundamental to lower-class life. While they’re in no need of money to pay bills or buy groceries, because they’re privileged, wealthy and powerful, other people are not. If Cuomo or Ocasio-Cortez are angry about something, for instance, they can call a press conference and effect policy. What avenue do the people have when they’re frustrated? Protesting for their jobs back is all they can do. Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez calls for poor people to outright strike. The disconnect is so wide now that it’s hard to see anything but the space between.

The fix for these protests seem simple: People simply need to get their jobs back. If people have a job to show up to, they have no time at all to be running around to protest. Even if they still wanted to, they'd be at work and not on the streets, which some experts suggest may help Covid-19 flatten out quicker.

Fixing the disconnect between classes in America, however, may be a bit more complicated to figure out.