The new class system

The last few months have made the disparity between social classes clearer than usual.

I am very fortunate.  I benefit greatly from the class structure.  However, I feel that the recent quarantine has made some of those benefits more evident.

The old aristocracy died with the old empires.  There are obviously still royal families, but two world wars had a dramatic effect on the social hierarchy.  Societal norms shifted.  I personally believe that many worked towards true equality during the late 20th century.  We didn't get there, but I do think that, overall, society as a whole was improved.

In the early 21st century, however, something new arose.  Several services became significantly less expensive.  The result, unfortunately, looks very much like the birth of a new social class: servants for rent.

Rather than have a driver, you have Uber and Lyft.  Rather than have a personal shopper, you have InstaCart and Amazon.  Cleaning services have come down in price to such an extent as to become palatable to most of the middle class.

We have been able to re-create many of the occupations of a Victorian household without providing the people in those occupations with housing and healthcare.  I cannot accurately compare the hourly wage of a maid in the United Kingdom in 1920 to those working for a cleaning service in the United States in 2020.  I do think it is fair to say that neither were properly compensated.

While those at the top (myself included) can safely quarantine, the other social strata need to continue to risk their health.  We call them "essential workers" but have not increased their wages.

Just as the epidemics of the 18th century would cause the land owners to take shelter on country estates, so a computer programmer orders everything he needs to be delivered to his door for months on end.

So, we have a choice.  We can watch as the aristocracy is reborn, or we can look upon the mistakes of the past and find a better way.  We can pay those we need what they deserve.  We can increase the cost of those things that really shouldn't be cheap.  We can once again look at the shining beacon of equality, which we may never reach, and take a small step towards it.