Don’t Blame Econ 101 for the Plight of Essential Workers
They’ve been systematically devalued for years. But they don’t have to be.
The workers who restock grocery shelves. The workers who aid the dying in hospice-care centers. The workers who pick strawberries and butcher chickens and cows. Who transport vital goods from port to store, and spirit away trash and recycling from homes and businesses. Who change the linens in hospitals, deliver food, watch babies, and help people with disabilities. Along with doctors and nurses, these are the heroes of today’s crisis. They are the people putting themselves at risk to keep others alive and society functioning through the country’s shelter-in-place orders. They are the essential.
So why are so many of these workers making poverty wages? How can work worth so much be worth so little? Over the past
