"We are not essential, we are sacrificial" - A New York City subway conductor on returning to work

The conditions created by the pandemic drive home the fact that we essential workers — workers in general — are the ones who keep the social order from sinking into chaos. Yet we are treated with the utmost disrespect, as though we’re expendable. Since March 27, at least 98 New York transit workers have died of Covid-19. My co-workers say bitterly: “We are not essential. We are sacrificial.”

You can’t really put it any better than this. The bottom of the economic pyramid are the ones most vulnerable during times like this and yet the state and others are not willing to take care of them when they spend all day making sure we can live the (relatively) luxurious lives that most of us do.