12 OPINION AND DEBATE
THE FOUNDER September 2021
Key Workers During the Pandemic: Something Needs to Change KENZA GARMZI | CONTENT WRITER
D
uring the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a social change that has been previously unheard of: attitudes to key workers. For the first time, the importance of predominantly lower-paid workers role in society has been made clear. People and big companies have placed billboards and created small deals for these key workers throughout the pandemic. However, most of this action has been, at best, inadequate and at worst, performative. The two are closer to being as bad as each other and presents a silent reality surrounding attitudes towards workers and the damaging impact this has on humanity. During the pandemic, the already rich made millions through manipulating money during an economic crash which pushed the number of those in poverty worldwide to 150 million according to the world bank. Whilst the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. A typical result for a capitalist economic system. This seems even more dystopian when you realize that even a global pandemic, which left millions with their lives, livelihood and loved ones lost, can’t stop the ever-growing force of the ‘free market’ help make millionaires billionaires.
The wealthy used the money on hand and utilized the unequal bailouts to their advantage by investing in the stock market that was bouncing back. The federal reserve later dropped interest rates to 0, this lasted for a decade which caused low point investments to return – according to the Treasury - 4.62 times their original investment turning $1000 into $4620 and $1000000 into $4620000. Small businesses having to shut down during COVID-19 and a collapsing stock market created the perfect conditions for the wealthy to take advantage of similar government programs which were formed to bail out banks and businesses.
Where does this leave key workers? Key workers make up a part of the workforce that cannot work from home and are some of the lowest paid in society, despite providing a service that arguably upholds our society. Furthermore, their work is some of the most stigmatized in our society, which regularly looks down upon key workers such as cleaners and refuse collectors. Where would we be, as a society, without the people who put food on our shelves, provide healthcare or educate our youth? The government cheers the NHS on whilst simultaneously refusing to raise NHS workers’ pay, until immense public pressure to do so. Performative gestures are a crucial part of keeping disillusioned members of society feel as though they are being heard when this is quite the opposite.
Business Insider has given three examples of the rich get richer during other times of crisis. The 2007 housing crisis and stock market crash caused government aid to rise by seven hundred billion to purchase devalued assets from banks which were then used to reduce inerest for homeowners who were largely affected by the Great Recession.
Source: Getty Images
Ultimately, workers’ roles in society needs a societal revolution if we are to process into a situation in which people work for their enjoyment and not just for their boss’s profit motive. This means increasing minimum wages, making it harder for people to manipulate money into a fortune, and less government cuts to fields it deems ‘unimportant’. Overall, just respecting people’s work even if it isn’t academic or ‘aspirational’ in our current societies’ point of view. They benefit as they are treated with dignity and respect and other workers benefit from their inevitably high-quality work as a result. Every worker’s role in society is what upholds its very existence.
