National Looters

    There are some realizations happening I think with the coronoravirus crisis where we suddenly see some of the risk that people have put themselves in to serve their fellow humans, to contribute to the economy in humble and faithful ways, and sometimes to simply provide for themselves responsibly. I am talking about grocery store cashiers, and of course the health care people, but especially the grocery store people who have for many years been the lowest paid workers in our country.  You could see glimpses of it during snow days when everyone gets their food and the cashiers drive home on the snowy roads, but really I think it has been more apparent than that, with just the usual amount of discipline and patience it takes to get through several hours or a whole day standing in one place facing the public, which can be collectively impatient to the point of abuse.  Of course some customers are nice, and the grocery store jobs turn out to be the secure jobs as the economy crumbles some, hopefully temporarily.  But we should still not miss this clue that maybe cashiers have always been underpaid and under-appreciated by people who have no excuse, which is mostly companies, but also in a way, all of us as consumers who tolerate it.

    As people get desperate, there could be an additional level of safety risk not just due to the contagion of the virus, but also because of people targeting stores for stealing, hoarding, and other bad mob behavior.  I should not be pessimistic, and I think already military support has been activated to keep people safe, but I think it will be interesting to see what kinds of company sharks continue to chew up their employees and hide their money that could have strengthened our whole society to face any epidemic with total resources and justice for everyone. It makes you think about who are the real looters.  When people come into the stores with baseball bats, it could still be a thin disguise for the real bullies collecting the most cash from all of it, who literally are so far from the scenes that their only link to the stores are their rapidly increasing bank accounts, growing in exact inverse proportion to the health and safety of their employees and stock market slaves.