[HN Gopher] The richer you are, the more likely you'll social di...
___________________________________________________________________
The richer you are, the more likely you'll social distance, study
finds
Author : rustoo
Score : 143 points
Date : 2021-01-14 19:21 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (releases.jhu.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (releases.jhu.edu)
| bronco21016 wrote:
| Seems logical and what my anecdotal experience has been from
| talking with friends and family. There is one exception. There is
| a small percentage of far-right and wealthy that largely ignores
| social distancing, in my experience.
|
| It does make sense though overall. The wealthier you are the more
| likely you are to have a significantly more comfortable living
| experience that makes social distancing more bearable. More
| access to food/grocery delivery, more access to entertainment and
| technology, more access to at home recreation/exercise equipment,
| more space in your home or the financial means to change that.
| The list could go on.
|
| In short money buys you space and things to fill your time alone.
| achenatx wrote:
| you specify far right, but it is also the left, in my
| experience. They dont flaunt it because they need to toe the
| party line. At the same time they are railing at trump for not
| promoting masks more, they are flying to go skiing.
|
| Mayor adler of austin got extended family together, had a
| wedding, then took a private jet to cabo where he recorded a
| video encouraging austinites to stay home.
|
| Most of my friends are liberals and many are eating in
| restaurants, taking trips, getting together without masks "with
| a select" group of friends that they are quarantining with etc.
| They say the right thing, but are doing something different.
|
| Your confirmation bias and the media says it is the right. Here
| is an example of hollywood stars that got infected.
|
| https://www.vulture.com/article/famous-people-celebrities-wi...
|
| Here is an article about prominent dems not following guidance.
| https://www.businessinsider.com/democratic-politicians-who-v...
| asdff wrote:
| Here's an example of congressional republicans refusing to
| wear masks while sheltering in place during the recent siege
| on the capitol:
| https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/democrats-
| have-c...
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| To be fair, the paper also looked at behaviors like increased
| washing you hands and found that they tracked with income as
| well.
| jolmg wrote:
| > The list could go on.
|
| I'd think the biggest would be more freedom with respect to
| making work more compliant to social distancing.
| MartianSquirrel wrote:
| I would tend to think the education level also plays a role,
| and considering wealthier individuals usually have a better
| access to education/are more educated (read correlation not
| causation here), said individuals might have a better grasp off
| what is happening.
|
| Edit: Remote working is also easier when you have an office job
|
| Edit 2: I hope more research like this will come out so we can
| prepare and protect the ones who are more at risk when the next
| pandemic comes. Uderstanding the risk factors and how a disease
| spreads is the first step of _debugging_ it. Sadly it is the
| first pandemic where we have the necessary tools to track all
| the information and analyse it. We have been lucky the death
| rate was not much higher
| [deleted]
| nicbou wrote:
| That makes sense, given how much statistics they throw at
| you. Logarithmic scales, R numbers, per-100000 values,
| percentages etc. That's on top of all the numbers you must
| remember to relativise the daily news.
|
| I wonder how much of it I'd grasp if I hadn't used maths
| since high school.
| [deleted]
| JacksonGariety wrote:
| You really think right-wingers are too stupid to grasp the
| concept of the virus?
| MartianSquirrel wrote:
| I did not mentionned political affiliations. I don't
| understand why everyone seems to focus on politics
| recently. Yes, there have been troubling events, but the
| world did not stop revolving
| mushbino wrote:
| We could put a heat map of political affiliation,
| education, and income to see if maybe a correlation. Not
| too difficult to find out.
| exclusiv wrote:
| Well the top comment mentioned far-right so that's
| probably why the parent dropped that. Separately, I don't
| think it was a productive comment.
| MartianSquirrel wrote:
| Fair enough, that part did not register as OP said it was
| "anecdotical" and in his experience
| JacksonGariety wrote:
| The comment you replied to is about right-wing response
| to the virus.
|
| Still, barring the political stuff (supposing that's
| possible)--your comment implies that people who wear
| masks do so because they are educated. I'd suggest that
| it is far more likely that they do so because they are
| deferential to authority by default.
|
| EDIT: s/smart/educated
| majormajor wrote:
| > Still, barring the political stuff (supposing that's
| possible)--your comment implies that people who wear
| masks do so because they are educated. I'd suggest that
| it is far more likely that they do so because they are
| deferential to authority by default.
|
| Authorities in the US initially said _don 't_ wear masks
| as private citizens. There was a groundswell of people
| saying "it's not a panacea, but it's quite probably worth
| doing for everybody" to get them to change their position
| and admit the original one was based more on trying to
| avoid a shortage than on anything about efficacy. That
| pushback seemed to come from an educated populace.
| netizen-9748 wrote:
| GP comment mentions far-right wealthy people not socially
| distancing, the commenter you are replying to seems to
| have connected that with the parent's comment on
| education.
| Spivak wrote:
| This is all true but I would still consider it surprising that
| it's such a strong predictor of mask wearing and staying
| physically separated from people.
|
| The behaviors they studied cost nothing and are equally
| available and beneficial to the rich and poor alike so it's odd
| that it has any correlation to income at all.
| vbtemp wrote:
| I'm sorry you are getting downvoted for wrong HN think.
| People come up with all sorts of weird off-the-cuff
| justifications for things. Medical staff, various home
| contractors, grocery-store staff all wear masks for extremely
| long shifts. HN logic seems to be: Poor people less-likely to
| social distance and wear masks -> HN responds with all sorts
| of supposed sociological factors why they don't and why it's
| acceptable. Meanwhile, lots of poor people (who work in the
| aforementioned professions) actually do wear masks and safely
| practice all the precautions, so the HN peanut gallery just
| end up being patronizingly insulting to poor people.
| sokoloff wrote:
| If you're comfortable in your house for 15.5 of your 16
| waking hours, it's not that much of a sacrifice to put on a
| nice, fresh mask for half an hour a day.
|
| If instead you're working 10+ hours a day somewhere near
| people, you're probably tired of wearing the damn mask, the
| mask might be wet with condensation in cold climates, etc.
| exclusiv wrote:
| That's true. I also have a theory that those that don't
| wear condoms or use protection don't wear masks. And that a
| large percentage of the more religious are less likely to
| wear masks.
|
| There are several buckets of people in those groups and
| they're pretty sizable. Crosses several races and several
| age groups.
|
| EDIT: got some downvotes on this. Probably mentioning words
| like "race" and "age" which is a no-no for some people.
|
| To clarify the intent of my comment - I think in order to
| provide a better response to a pandemic I think it is
| important to understand those groups which would be better
| served with different communications.
|
| If you don't care about the risk of STDs or an unplanned
| pregnancy or your faith in God is the primary driver of
| your health and well-being response, you probably aren't
| going to care as much as others about wearing a mask.
|
| I had one young pregnant acquaintance of ours, who lives
| with her grandmother, tell my wife that she knows she will
| be ok because of her faith in God. This young woman had at
| least one large family gathering. She didn't quarantine or
| test before seeing people. Her fiance was actually going to
| the gym regularly. Her grandmother got covid and luckily
| she made it.
|
| Repeating all the same directives (social distance, mask,
| wash hands) has clearly NOT worked. Even saying the
| hospitals are overwhelmed hasn't seemed to matter.
|
| I don't think you can prepare a good response without
| difficult conversations and an understanding of why people
| might do what they do and how that perspective developed.
|
| And politicians would rather speak vaguely and not make
| tough calls lest they inflame some of their supporters.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| >I also have a theory that those that don't wear condoms
| or use protection don't wear masks.
|
| >If you don't care about the risk of STDs or an unplanned
| pregnancy or your faith in God is the primary driver of
| your health and well-being response, you probably aren't
| going to care as much as others about wearing a mask.
|
| So people in committed relationships, homosexuals and
| people above the age where pregnancy is possible?
|
| Because those are the groups of people who use condoms
| the least and at least one of them is certainly not
| letting religion inform their sexual habits.
| throwaway3699 wrote:
| If the only respite to being locked indoors is going outside,
| of course people are going to dislike masks. It's a constant
| reminder that there's nowhere to escape from the current
| situation.
| war1025 wrote:
| Do people commonly wear masks outside in some places?
|
| Where I live, we have more or less universal mask wearing
| in stores, but the only reason people wear masks outside is
| that they are about to head into a business or are just
| leaving one. What's the point of wearing a mask outside?
| jdavis703 wrote:
| In the Bay Area masks are required indoors and outdoors
| whenever within 30 feet of people. For apartment dwellers
| there's been no way to legally _enjoy_ fresh air for the
| last 10 months.
| war1025 wrote:
| Sounds miserable.
| orangecat wrote:
| _Do people commonly wear masks outside in some places?_
|
| Yes. In my area it's required by law.
|
| _What 's the point of wearing a mask outside?_
|
| Basically nothing other than signalling, with possible
| exceptions for crowded environments. Overall I expect
| outdoor mask mandates to be harmful on balance, by
| causing people to shift from outdoor to indoor
| gatherings.
| ev1 wrote:
| At least here (SF), everything is crowded. Every single
| trail, park, you are going to effectively be covered in
| people, runners panting on the sidewalk an inch from you.
| It's definitely not signaling and I'd much rather
| everyone put them on in this case when crowding is the
| guarantee.
|
| I'd have no issue walking around unmasked if you were out
| in the middle of the night and you were the only one
| around, though. But the days are so crowded it's pretty
| much an indoor environment.
| orangecat wrote:
| Yeah, I can see the argument for places like SF. Where I
| am there are lots of areas where you can easily maintain
| 10+ feet separation, yet the city explicitly changed the
| law from "masks outside when you can't distance" to
| "masks outside always".
| greggturkington wrote:
| "signalling?" It reduces the spread of disease in crowded
| areas.
| Hamuko wrote:
| I usually only see people wearing a mask outside if they
| go by public transportation.
| [deleted]
| PrefixKitten wrote:
| this is my thinking as well. I was already excruciatingly
| isolated and lonely beforehand. I'm not gonna pass up what few
| social opportunities I get just to avoid a little risk
| beervirus wrote:
| White collar jobs tend to be more flexible with working from
| home too. If I worked at a factory all day in close proximity
| to others, I wouldn't bother distancing when I was off the
| clock.
| asdff wrote:
| >There is a small percentage of far-right and wealthy that
| largely ignores social distancing, in my experience.
|
| Case in point, republican lawmakers refusing to wear masks
| while sheltering during the far right insurrection last week:
|
| https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/democrats-have-c...
| zeku wrote:
| Yeah I would hope they adjusted for work. I'm a SWE working
| remotely until the pandemic is over and the guy at my house
| today fixing my plumbing is in people's homes every day. It's
| pretty unfair/easy comparison that doesn't really say much if
| you don't adjust for work.
| phnofive wrote:
| You might be surprised by the plumber's income bracket.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| You don't make squat until you own your own business
| (though there are some exceptions for commercial work).
| Which you can't do until you've put your years in thanks to
| protectionist licensing schemes.
| NationalPark wrote:
| To save everyone else from a google, the median plumber
| income in 2019 was $55,160 according the BLS
| (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-
| extraction/plumbers...).
| ska wrote:
| Which is about 1/2 the equivalent stat for software devs
| (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
| technology/...)
| JMTQp8lwXL wrote:
| Surprising how the BLS numbers seem so far off from
| what's seen on Levels.fyi. Possible explanations: they
| only factor in base salary (no RSUs or bonuses), the bay
| area employs a proportionally small number of SWEs (such
| that the median is reflective of other, cheaper areas),
| or non-traditional jobs are getting grouped with SWEs as
| a single career category.
| el_benhameen wrote:
| This is a common trope and is true for some
| journeymen/business owners, but does not necessarily apply
| to the majority of plumbers and tradespeople in general.
| The guy that Whoops-O-Rooter sends to your house to snake
| your drains or fix a leak is not likely to be in a high
| income bracket.
| jvalencia wrote:
| My contractor service friends spend a goodly portion of
| their income on Google Ads or their business evaporates.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| A prime example of why advertising is zero-sum and should
| be restricted across the board. Would free up so much
| money for businesses to use on something worthwhile, with
| no net loss in customers.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| Also if you live in a mansion and can afford delivery instead
| of living in an apartment and getting groceries after work.
| vkou wrote:
| Most grocery stores now offer curbside pickup at no extra
| cost.
|
| There are some non-monetary inconveniences associated with
| this. In aggregate, they are probably less significant than
| the monetary and non-monetary inconveniences of having the
| chance to catch COVID-19 inside the grocery.
| jorblumesea wrote:
| I'd say the biggest difference is where you make your money.
| Income and ability to work remotely seems pretty strongly
| correlated due to its probably white collar nature, and this
| normalizes social distancing. If you work in a grocery store,
| chances are you are desensitized to some of the ideas.
| manicdee wrote:
| There is also the issue that people with higher disposable
| incomes can afford to not work, while people with low or zero
| disposable income need every hour of work they can scrounge up,
| so they don't have the choice to not work.
| threatofrain wrote:
| > There is also the issue that people with higher disposable
| incomes can afford to not work.
|
| People with _savings or wealth_ can afford not to work.
| imbnwa wrote:
| Can't forget the white collars also living paycheck-to-
| paycheck for whatever reason
| GoodJokes wrote:
| The richer you are the more likely you CAN social distance
| themaninthedark wrote:
| The idea of being able to socially distance and work from home is
| one that is very much rooted in white collar and office jobs
| mindset.
|
| Here is a paraphrasing of a conversation I had with my cousin who
| works as a research scientist for vaccines(not COVID), I am a
| production engineer at a manufacturing facility.
|
| Cousin:"If we just locked down everything for a month or two,
| Covid would be gone" Me:"I don't think we have food in the house
| to last 2 months" C:"Well, grocery stores would still have to
| stay open I guess..."
|
| So we need food, that keeps grocery stores open. Need delivery to
| the store, that keeps gas stations open. Need to repair cars,
| garages are now open. Keep unpacking things and you begin to see
| that there is a lot that is essential.
|
| Now, you could help limit things by saying only 1 grocery store
| in 5 mile radius can be open but who gets to pick which store?
| Keep the Whole Foods open or the Kroger?
| thejellypen wrote:
| anecdotal but from what ive seen its the rich & entitled that
| dont care and do whatever they want. vacations, seeing groups
| anfnthen their families etc.
| gameswithgo wrote:
| entitled people doing what they want is a bit tautological
| lamontcg wrote:
| there's plenty of normally rich and wealthy people who aren't
| the narcissist jet set who are just WFH through the whole
| thing.
|
| when you discuss "rich" you need to distinguish between the 99%
| narcissist kardashian class and everyone who is in the 90th
| percentile.
| thejellypen wrote:
| fair enough
| chairmanwow1 wrote:
| But with lots of testing throughout, no?
| qixv wrote:
| The title should really be something like "The nicer a home you
| have, the more likely you'll social distance, study finds". This
| seems closer to the causality which is implied in the article.
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| > the more likely they were to protect themselves at the early
| stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States
|
| Emphasis on "early stages".
|
| When there was no data available and before the issue was
| politicised, of course it made sense for people who could afford
| it to preventively self-isolate.
|
| Poor people simply didn't have an option (as in many other
| things).
| king_panic wrote:
| This was true even before the China Virus
| randyrand wrote:
| good self discipline correlates with lots of positive things.
| [deleted]
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| Not surprising at all. The less rich you are the more you have
| bigger problems.
| Nacdor wrote:
| A lot of people have joked that there really is no "lockdown",
| there are just rich people staying home while poor people bring
| them things.
| rhino369 wrote:
| I'm not forcing people making $10/hr to work in a tight kitchen
| where social distancing is impossible. I'm supporting local
| restaurants!
| treeman79 wrote:
| For people without kids, distancing is one thing.
|
| For those with small children it's a whole different matter.
|
| Guess which group tends To have extra money.
|
| At a certain point social distancing is pointless.
|
| Have a small home with kids? Your not going to keep them locked
| up for a year without major issues. Us and neighbors eventuality
| gave up on keeping kids separated.
|
| At home learning in a big house is painful. I can't imagine a
| small apartment.
|
| Once kids go back to in person schooling, Congratulations your
| getting Covid.
|
| A month after in person school started later whole family had
| Covid. Not fun, but have had worse. Very glad to
| finally get it over with.
|
| Kids only had a fever for one day.
|
| Had many friends lose or risk losing their jobs and businesses
| during the past year. So for many of them avoiding COVID may mean
| going homeless.
| godmode2019 wrote:
| Sounds like sampling bias, also - ""The team found lower-income
| respondents faced increased chances of job and income losses due
| to the pandemic and limited access to remote work. They were also
| more likely to live in homes with no access to the outdoors -
| access to outdoor space was a very strong predictor of social
| distancing, the researchers found. People with access to open air
| at home were 20% more likely to social distance.""
| [deleted]
| some_random wrote:
| >"The whole messaging of this pandemic is you're stuck at home
| teleworking, that must be really tough so here are some recipes
| for sourdough starter, and here's what you should catch up on
| Netflix," Papageorge said. "But what about the people who aren't
| teleworking? What are they going to do?"
|
| We've kinda entered this situation where the most vulnerable
| people are being shamed while the most able are held up as
| paragons of society. There's a reason that stupid video of
| celebrities in their mansions singing was so hated.
| kenjackson wrote:
| The most vulnerable aren't being shamed. The firefigher or
| nurse or plumber or grocer -- everyone respects that they are
| doing important work on the frontline.
|
| The people being shamed are the ones having 30 person parties
| for New Years. Whether it is Gavin Newsome or someone in the
| trailer park. Those are the people that are being shamed.
| outside1234 wrote:
| And to be clear, should be shamed. It is just shameful to
| "continue on" with your life while our medical professionals
| are pulling 16 hour days with 0 capacity ICUs because you
| want to ski.
| asdff wrote:
| It's glaringly evident when you see this mapped. Here is LA
| county, the hot spots are some of the poorest areas, while the
| wealthy along the hills are scarcely in a pandemic by comparison:
|
| http://dashboard.publichealth.lacounty.gov/covid19_surveilla...
|
| And it is no surprise considering most poor living situations in
| LA county are overcrowded where it would be difficult to
| distance, to the point of 1880s nyc tenemant conditions, and the
| working poor are more likely to be called into work as an
| essential worker than someone with a white collar job that can be
| done at home.
| andy-x wrote:
| I wish it was the opposite - the more you social-distance the
| richer you get :)
| octocop wrote:
| "The richer you are, the more money you have in your bank
| account, study finds."
| gred wrote:
| Citation?
| kenjackson wrote:
| As I've gotten wealthier the amount of money in my bank account
| went up for a bit, but then it started coming back down.
| justicezyx wrote:
| Wtf is this research?!
|
| People are dying and researchers trying to prove obvious things?!
| What's going on here?
|
| I cannot understand what's the rationale behind this post. At
| either researchers going later to show that being rich also
| correlates with longer life and happier one as well?
|
| What are all the inactivity happening in this country regarding
| the covid? Everyone seems content with their own life and
| comfortable with the obvious injustice and cruelty practiced
| between each other.
|
| In China, covid is treated as a issue that matters above anything
| one can think of. If there is any trace of new carriers, any
| outdoor activities are strictly traced and managed. People pay a
| lot of attention and very careful about daily work and life. How
| is this country are content with understanding that richer people
| usually more respect the safety measure?
|
| What an insane situation guys? Did you realize it?!
| wrs wrote:
| Do we realize it?? Imagine listing all the insane things
| happening in the US right now. It would take hours. It's
| incredible how fast people can normalize things that not long
| before would have seemed completely delusional.
| qntty wrote:
| Do you have any suggestions for how an economist with this
| specialty could better contribute to the situation than doing
| research like this?
| thinkingemote wrote:
| Chill out bro. You being stressed doesnt help you or others.
| Taniwha wrote:
| We addressed this in New Zealand when we went into deep lockdown
| (only allowed out for exercise and supermarket, everything else
| closed) back in March - what the government did was essentially
| trickle up relief (we all know now that trickle down doesn't
| work) - what they provided was a wage subsidy that companies
| could claim to pay employees who were locked down's wages - not a
| fixed puny lump sum, not a gift to big biz, something to keep
| people connected with their employers so that after we could
| easily start everything back up again.
|
| It wasn't cheap, but locking absolutely everyone down for a
| couple of months was way cheaper that the alternative in the long
| run - surely the US could have done this - you pay far higher
| taxes than we do in NZ, money really shouldn't be an option
| [deleted]
| refurb wrote:
| The government paid business to pay workers? That sounds
| trickle down?
|
| And no, the US has lower tax rates (30% bracket starts at $48k
| NZD?).
| apozem wrote:
| The US should have done this. We could have done it. We don't
| know the total economic damage yet, but I would wager it is
| already many times what it would have cost to do what New
| Zealand did.
|
| The problem is a huge chunk of the country flies into a rage at
| the thought of their tax dollars going to people who "don't
| work."
|
| Combine this with decades of Republican rhetoric about "welfare
| queens," [1] separating the undeserving poor (read: black and
| Hispanic people) from the deserving poor... it convinces white
| voters to hurt themselves just so _those people_ don't get
| something that _they_ don't deserve.
|
| Racism warps American politics again and again and again. I
| used to live in Atlanta, a city with some of the worst traffic
| in the country. It lacks adequate public transit because white
| homeowners didn't want black people coming to their suburbs
| [2]. So now everyone suffers.
|
| Our political system is diseased.
|
| [1]: https://newrepublic.com/article/154404/myth-welfare-queen
|
| [2]:
| https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/traf...
| asciident wrote:
| I think it'd be the opposite reaction if the US adopted the
| NZ strategy. People would be outraged that the money is going
| to companies, especially large corporations where most people
| work. Someone would come up with the statistic that 80% of
| the money went to the richest 100 companies in the US or
| something.
| [deleted]
| refurb wrote:
| Left wing rant aside, California, which is not exactly known
| for it's right wing leanings has done absolutely horrible
| with Covid. Not only has it failed to contain the virus it's
| almost last in rolling out the vaccine (well behind those
| racist Red states you call out like TX).
| rhino369 wrote:
| >The US should have done this. We could have done it.
|
| Probably not without extraordinary measures that NZ didn't
| have to do because they have nice natural borders. It's an
| island chain with 5 million people.
|
| The US has about 65 times as many people in the contiguous 48
| states. But they aren't in 65 isolated island chains--they
| are in interconnected economic areas. Chicago isn't isolated
| from Milwaukee, Milwaukee isn't isolated from Madison,
| Madison isn't isolated from Eau Claire, which isn't isolated
| from Minnesota.
|
| So if there is a 5% risk a population with 5 million has an
| outbreak despite border controls, then its 96.5% likely that
| there is at least one outbreak in at least one of the 65
| groups of 5 million. And an outbreak in 1 would leak to the
| rest because they are not isolated like New Zealand it. But
| 5% is really low, especially since new zealand already had
| one such outbreak. If its 50%, then its essentially 100%
| certain an outbreak will happen.
|
| That's why the EU didn't even try to do the New Zealand plan
| either. Big interconnected areas can't rely on effective
| border controls to prevent the spread.
|
| That's not even considering the fact that the US and EU
| already have COVID spread throughout their entire borders. As
| far as I know, no country to wide spread outbreaks has gotten
| the virus back under control. How many months of Melbourne
| lock downs would it take to get the US or EU to actually 0
| cases? If we miss some outbreaks in backwater WV, they'd
| eventually spread to the whole country the second we opened
| back up.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| I wonder if the trend reverses when we get to the ultra-rich.
|
| The richest people are often leaders, celebrities, etc... They
| are constantly moving and meeting people, and they are also more
| likely to have personnel in their house, and maybe a chauffeur,
| bodyguards, etc...
| __s wrote:
| People who can afford to socially distance & tend to be more
| educated & are most likely to be able to work remotely are more
| likely to socially distance
| Spivak wrote:
| That doesn't track entirely because the behaviors they're
| talking about are wearing masks and staying 6ft away from
| people. Both behaviors cost nothing.
| mindvirus wrote:
| It could be a second order effect - the less wealthy you are,
| the more often you are required to not social distance (due
| to living situation and work etc) so in the times you can,
| there's less pressure or desire to.
| willcipriano wrote:
| That would seem to be a reasonable reaction. If people with
| jobs that don't really allow for social distancing were
| also the people the most worried about the virus, they
| would be under a great deal of psychological stress that
| they can't really do anything about. From a evolutionary
| standpoint it would make sense that the people most able to
| act around a threat are also the most worried about it.
| odessacubbage wrote:
| when you're grabbing gas station coffee for your pre-dawn bus
| commute to a job multiple hours away. distancing requires
| both time and space that you do not have. moreover it
| requires the social cachet to choose to be the odd man out in
| a peer group that has been doing high-risk close proximity
| labor for the entire stretch of the pandemic. this generates
| broader complacency since you either already got it or you're
| fucked anyway because if your roomie gets it you're gonna get
| it and if you didn't get it _by now_ then it must not have
| been a big deal so why single yourself out?
| timr wrote:
| Poorer folks in New York City have drastically less space
| available for...pretty much everything.
|
| Even in relatively spaced-out areas, this is true. If you go
| to Central Park, you'll find that the density of people on an
| average day is far higher at (say) Harlem Meer than it is
| further south. There are simply more people who are sharing
| the same recreation space that is within X miles of the place
| they are living.
|
| Central Park is actually a silly example, because it's _far
| better_ than most other parts of New York. Go to Fort
| Washington Park on an average sunny weekend, and the density
| of people is _dramatically_ higher than Riverside Park,
| further south. And that 's just recreation...poorer people
| have less time for that than rich people do. Go to Flushing,
| and people are cheek-to-jowl at pretty much all times, even
| though there's a big empty park right next door.
| dcolkitt wrote:
| > And that's just recreation...poorer people have less time
| for that than rich people do.
|
| At least in the US, the poor have significantly more
| leisure time than the rich.
|
| https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/the-
| fre...
| grimjack00 wrote:
| You can't perform the no-cost behavior of wearing a mask
| without, you know, _having_ a mask, which is not necessarily
| free.
| ska wrote:
| > Both behaviors cost nothing.
|
| This is not true for the latter. Many people, especially some
| with little means, have little practical ability to maintain
| social distance.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| They cost _nothing_ in the same way that exercising and
| cutting out junk food costs _nothing8.
|
| Though I will grant you that wearing a mask does cost less
| _nothing*.
| t-writescode wrote:
| And can afford food couriers for dinners.
| 52-6F-62 wrote:
| Or a functional kitchen. It's one of the major factors for me
| in a dwelling. I used to have to make myself a loaf of soda
| bread as my only food for the week in my "kitchen" that was a
| stove and a sink in the corner of a room. Now that I'm a
| little more established I have a kitchen that my partner and
| I can _both_ move about freely while we work on a meal and it
| never ceases to feel like we somehow cheated to gain such a
| luxury.
|
| So food can increase qualitatively in more way than one when
| you have more resources behind you! And it's certainly not a
| fact that's lost on people who are struggling
| Hamuko wrote:
| Eh. I'm still on microwave dishes. It's been a while since I
| ordered food.
| gameswithgo wrote:
| You...could be...healthier?
| Hamuko wrote:
| I could be a lot healthier in many ways.
| rhino369 wrote:
| Ordering in is probably just as bad unless you really go
| out of your way to order healthy.
| grimjack00 wrote:
| So...what?
| Triv888 wrote:
| That's probably true for 99% of us?
| GuB-42 wrote:
| There is nothing unhealthy about microwaved dishes.
|
| In fact, frozen food, a primary candidate for the
| microwave, may be just as good as fresh food, sometimes
| better depending on the process and on how fresh the
| "fresh" food is. Also microwaving is actually a healthy
| way of cooking things.
|
| It all depends on what you put inside your microwave.
| Healthy food is healthy, junk food is junk, but the
| microwave has nothing to do with it.
| ska wrote:
| This is true for at least a lot of frozen food, but
| doesn't speak to the distribution of available microwaved
| dishes.
|
| As you say healthy food is healthy, but there may not be
| a lot of it available in your local freezer aisle. Or
| there may, depends where you live and shop I suspect.
| brutal_chaos_ wrote:
| I am probably in the minority here on HN and I'd like you to pay
| attention to this part from TFA:
|
| "But the team found it was also much easier for people with more
| money to take extra safety measures."
|
| I am vulnerable due to pre-existing conditions. Currently my
| partner works retail-it is open and the workers are not
| considered essential/front line and will be in the last group to
| get vaccinated-because we need money of course. We live in a
| studio together, I'm afraid one or both of us may not make it
| through this pandemic. Every day we do everything we can, but all
| it can take is one slip. I am only one of many who share a
| similar story in the US and I believe it needs way more
| attention.
| mcguire wrote:
| " _But the team found it was also much easier for people with
| more money to take extra safety measures._
|
| " _Higher-income individuals were more likely to report being
| able to work from home and more likely to have transitioned to
| telework instead of losing their job. The researchers found the
| ability to telework emerged as a huge predictor of whether
| someone would social distance. Compared to somebody who continued
| to work, people able to telework were 24% more likely to social
| distance._
|
| " _"The whole messaging of this pandemic is you're stuck at home
| teleworking, that must be really tough so here are some recipes
| for sourdough starter, and here's what you should catch up on
| Netflix," Papageorge said. "But what about the people who aren't
| teleworking? What are they going to do?"_
|
| " _The team found lower-income respondents faced increased
| chances of job and income losses due to the pandemic and limited
| access to remote work. They were also more likely to live in
| homes with no access to the outdoors - access to outdoor space
| was a very strong predictor of social distancing, the researchers
| found. People with access to open air at home were 20% more
| likely to social distance._
|
| " _All of these burdens ensured those earning the least would
| have a harder time adopting social-distancing behaviors, which
| could have prolonged the pandemic, the team found. Social
| distancing was simply more practical, comfortable and feasible
| for people with more income._ "
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