A million people have said this already but it remains startling to see American society laud "essential" working class people as "heroes" when, before all these, we treated them like lazy parasites who don't deserve basic social services because it would make them even lazier.

The corporate lawyers and bank executives and hedge fund managers who hoover up money while providing nothing useful to society? They are the real parasites, and they are doing jack squat to help us survive a plague. They're relying on "essential" works like the rest of us.

It's hard to see a rational relation between value of work and amount of compensation when scumbags at McKinsey or Jones Day soak up millions of dollars by screwing over society while the bus drivers and food delivery people who are keeping us alive during a pandemic get pennies.

Rich parasites may now pay lip service to the contributions of the working class, but don't think for a second that they'll voluntarily relinquish their wealth or power to these "heroes" when the plague is over. "Essential workers" will go back to being a despised underclass.

Why is it verboten to say "billionaires shouldn't exist" but acceptable to make poor people pee in a cup to get a few dollars to feed their families?

If we treated rich people with a fraction of the malice and disdain with which rich people treat poor people, we'd be better off.