Essentially Dispensable?
I recently read an article by a young woman who has been delivering carryout food during epidemic. As she put it, this is how she suddenly becomes "essential".
While it is interesting to get a glimpse of what it is like to be a meal delivery person and her struggles, particularly during this pandemic, her story also touches off something that I find unsettling.
So far, I have been the grocery runner for our household. We have not ordered any carryout food or meal delivery. Many times, friends asked me why we do not use such delivery service. "It is not expensive. Just for a few extra dollars, someone brings your stuff to you. You don't have to wear a mask to go out. It is safer. And you don't have to spend your time standing in line. So convenient!"
I get it. But something inside of me just does not feel right.
We all know COVID 19 is a highly contagious disease that is potentially lethal. For a few dollars, I can ask someone else to take that risk for me, so I can just stay home and be safe. Similarly, for a few dollars, I can have someone risk their lives to go fetch the restaurant food for me so that I can have a taste of my normalcy during these abnormal times. Is the risk that they are taking only worth a few dollars? I cannot help thinking about the inherent dollar amount we are putting on the delivery person's life. Is this how much a human life is worth? Is my life more valuable than theirs? How do we view each other as people in this society?
In economics and finance classes, we are taught that high return comes with high risk. This generally rings true in financial investments. Yet, in this particular situation, despite the high stake involved, the return for many "essential workers" is pretty low. Why the difference?
One common argument for using delivery service is that, by ordering from restaurants and using delivery services, you are putting money into people's pockets. Not everybody has a desk job that can be worked from home. This way, your local restaurants gets some business, and the delivery people get to make some money.
I get this, too. I just wish that this is not the only way we can support those who need help. Yet, given the capitalistic system we have bought into, this has become our reality. Those who can afford it gets to stay home to quarantine whereas those who have no choice have to risk their lives. This phenomenon is not limited to our usual "essential workers".
Think about the baseball season that is about to start. Those players who have enough money in the bank may refuse to play because of their concern for the safety of themselves and their families. If they are skillful enough, they can bet on returning to the field in the next season, assuming COVID 19 will be over by then. The ones who want/ need the money have no choice but to get back to the baseball field.
Are baseball players "essential workers"? Are baseball games essential? To the team owners, the games are "essential" because they do not want to lose money. The stakeholders along the entire baseball food chain do not want to see baseballs games cancelled because they do not want to lose their income. Suddenly, the importance of the safety of a group of people has become a function of the financial impact to a different group of people.
Professional athletes, grocery store workers, food delivery service, . . . They are all "essential" because the rest of us want your creature comforts and the little bit of normalcy that we crave. At the same time, however, they are "dispensable" because, by spending a few extra dollars, we are saying to them, "It's better you than me".
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