Are the working class are being sacrificed to save the middle class?

[YakkityYakYakYak]

From a northern, predominantly working class town but have lived in the south for 15 years in a fairly middle class area.

There just seems such a stark difference between what we and most of our friends here are able to do (working from home, sheltered away in our houses, or able to take mortgage breaks if we need to stop working for a while) and what my family and friends in my home town are having to do (all still having to go out to work in care homes, factories, supermarkets, etc with very little protection).

DF who is close to retirement, has been classed as a key worker in the food supply chain. So he has to go to work every day in a dirty factory where absolutely no precautions have been taken to mitigate his risk of catching it.

Not sure there’s any point to this rant really, and I know there are no winners in this situation but I can’t help feeling that the working classes aren’t being protected at all and are basically being sacrificed to save everyone else.

Think this sums up the idea very well -

The answer is and I sound like a broken record I know but clear your mortgage before you buy anything, literally anything and don't have debt. It removes all control over you. Most people can manage utility bills and food, just remove that hold over you as soon as possible and you'll not be in a position of being forced to work at any time.
I know it's easier said than done.

We are northern working class, but not key workers. We aren't sacrificing ourselves for no fucker.
Doctors and teachers are mc professions, surely and sadly they are dying, too.
I think the mc will be sacrificed ito job to go back too, many of these companies won't be able to furlough for long, and working from home will be seen as not productive enough because employees are trying to do childcare too.
Tbh, I think the mc have far more to lose, the wc have nothing anyway.

Chrissie

This is us, we have enough for bills and a bit of disposable income, but owe nothing. I don't like debt and have done without over the past 30 years and saved rather than credit.
Me and dh are the same and don't want to have to work much to live.
Some people like to live to work.

Lockdown isn't about protecting people individually from COVID, it's about protecting the NHS from us all getting COVID at the same time.

So if people who can isolate (the middle class, but also people who don't work, people who have non-keyworker positions etc), it means that people who are still having to go to work are better off, because they are more likely to receive adequate medical care. It's not that you're "safe" if you're locked down, because lock down will end long before the risk of COVID does. Lock down is to benefit everyone by trying to mitigate the impact on the health service.

I agree that the more privileged you are the easier it is to lock down. That's the sad and terrible thing about privilege. And probably that the poorer you are the more likely you are to die, that's the sad and terrible thing about poverty.

Whatever's going on now though the middle classes and wealthy will be paying for this lockdown for decades to come. I think making this into a class thing is a bit simplistic.

chrissie many people don’t have mortgages, they have to go to work to pay the rent.

This event could close the gap a little as a lot of companies will look to cut costs. Easier to cut the cost of a higher earner than someone on minimum wage, which of course they are not allowed to do.