Ivan Mirabelli cruises through Westwood Hills, past manicured lawns, large houses and scattered workers, causing his outlying neighborhood to keep its appearance up, even in a pandemic.
In addition to short walks and a few outdoor meetings, Mirabelli said he has been helped at home. His job in finance – typically traveling heavily, but now completely online – gives him that flexibility.
“I do not want to get sick,” said Mirabelli, 34, who called the adaptability of his performance a privilege. “I do not have to make the difference between my job and my safety.”
But not all jobs changed with the coronavirus. Along the rolling streets of the neighborhood, people delivered parcels, painted walls and pruned trees. ‘It’s like every other day. … It seems very normal, “said Jose Ochoa, 28, who was a few blocks across the landscape.
For workers, the attitude is “more than, ‘nothing will really happen to me’, because we have to do it every way,” Ochoa said. ‘People of over here, they are more careful. ”
Five months after the pandemic, the coronavirus has pushed the lines of American society’s debt to spread inequality. Economic fallout is hitting poorer Californians hard, and infection and death rates among Latino and Black communities are towering above those in white communities, where more have the means to stay at home.
A remarkable role change in mobility appears as a product and producer of that growing inequality.
Social distance varies by income, a new study published by UC Davis at the National Academy of Sciences. The richest in America, who are typically the most mobile in the country, became the most stationary when the coronavirus spread, while poorer people went from the most inert to the biggest movers.
“People in poor areas may be more at risk for infection because they are less socially distant,” said economist Joakim Weill.
Richer people became the least mobile because they could adjust their work and consumption, said Michael Springborn, a UC Davis professor who worked with Weill and studies environmental and resource economics.
“Flexibility almost certainly increases with your income. “The more income you have, the more flexibility you have,” Springborn said. “Lower-income communities tend to have jobs that are typically considered essential work and lend them less to work from home.”
“They may have less liquidity and less cash on hand, and that may force them to make more trips to buy groceries, for example,” Weill added.
The economists identified the trend after splitting America’s counties and census strips into five different income groups based on median income. Using mobile location data, they then compare income with the mobility of people living in each area. The results show a strong difference between people in higher class and working people.
“There’s a massive leap when you get to that definitive category,” Springborn said, referring to the rising percentage of people staying fully at home in America’s richest census, where median income is between $ 40,500 and $ 148,000. Among the three poorest quintiles, the measure of people living together entirely at home is at a rate almost one-fifth smaller than the richest groups, representing a large, mobile working class.
“It’s a reflection of the distribution of income levels in the United States. “You have a lot of people who earn a relatively low or modest amount, and then a much smaller number of communities that are really, really far on the high end,” said Springborn. Non-wealthy people increased exposure to coronavirus fits next their higher rates of existing health conditions and reduced access to quality health care, Springborn said.
“It is clear from various lines of evidence that poor communities have a disproportionate share of the burden of the pandemic,” he said.
In Los Angeles, communities with higher poverty rates have three times as many cases as wealthy communities, said senior colleague Maria Cabildo of Advancement Project. Cabildo looked back at the coronavirus ‘spread to poorer areas of Los Angeles’ when it was reported that the virus was among the wealthiest people.
‘You could not even get a test unless you were traveling. You must have been in China or been to Italy. I had a feeling like this is going to happen … this thing is going to spread in our communities, ”said the native East Sider. Skyrocketing mortality figures for Latino and Black Angelenos prove that their expectations came true, she said. The coronavirus destroyed poor communities as they slowed down into rich ones.
Poor households – often for eviction, food shortages and more unmet needs – do not have the flexibility to choose security over money, so they need to go out and face exposure, Cabildo said.
“If they’re lucky enough to have a family member that works, then they work out,” she said. “The result is that people come in contact with a lot more people.” That increased exposure combines with other factors, such as higher house density, to destroy poor Latino and Black households in Los Angeles, she said.
“We owe something to these workers, who are pushing LA forward so that the rest of us can hide in place. We need to respond with resources in those communities that are most affected, ”she said.
Springborn and Weill, whose research team also included UC Santa Barbara and Stanford academies, said their findings should inform policy decisions.
“These kinds of findings should encourage them to really take priority over lower-income communities in the distribution of faxes,” Weill said. Labor protection, information campaigns and masks could also be targeted at poorer communities, they added.
Back in the Westwood Hills, a driver parked his sleek gray delivery van on the side of the road and stepped out to deliver a package. He said his name was Matt, and paused for a moment as he tried to figure out how he got past a metal gate of a house.
‘If I did not have to be here, no, I would not be here. There is no way to get out of here, “said the 52-year-old.
The sun was shining. Matt was sweating. He said that although he is not worried about detecting the coronavirus, he understands that flexibility comes with higher incomes – flexibility that would allow him to stop his horrific supply chain, where “everyone walks around like a zombie”, and maybe back can cross the country again by living family.
“You know, wealth equals freedom,” Matt said. “Green equals freedom. Money equals freedom. ”
