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It's Attitude Keeping People from Staying Home During COVID-19, Not Just Essential Jobs and Their Neighborhood's Wealth

A study released a couple weeks ago based on location data stated it was a privilege of wealth to be able to stay at home during COVID-19. My initial response was it had to do with the types of jobs residents of poorer neighborhoods are more likely to have; essential laboring like grocery stores, gas stations, and factories, as opposed to urban firms where telecommuting can get the work done. However, after observing the attitudes and life situations of certain people, I realized that attitude has an effect on their not staying home, too.

Case 1 is a relapsed alcoholic with a revoked driver's license who has been in and out of jail for 20 years with DUI charges, once a felony. He moves from one cash paying job to the next but is currently unemployed. Case 2 is a divorced single mother working jobs such as bartending and waitressing, quick to quit when something does not go in her favor. She always resides with a current boyfriend until moving in with the next. Both cases are middle-aged with a high school diploma, no college.

In the past week, both of these people publicly and dramatically stated the absurdity of this virus, voicing their opinion of it being a government conspiracy and demanding with profanity that we should all protest together and start going out. I found it interesting noting that both of these people have also created circumstances that would stereotypically place them in a poorer neighborhood.

Addicts lose jobs frequently and a woman basing her residence on significant others has no career nor reason to weather through job turmoil. Without commitment and steady income, these people typically will end up in places with cheaper rent. Additionally, addicts rebel against the rules and tend to not consider others. No one will tell them not to drink and drive, just like no one is going to tell them now they have to stay home; they are selfish and not thinking of infecting the sick and elderly. They often have risk-taking personalities also, making them more likely to take chances with their health, as they do with driving without a license or not showing up to work.

If they cannot live by society's rules normally, they do not illustrate a concern for themselves or others on a daily basis, so why would they listen to coronavirus stay at home orders?
 
In other words, the attitude of these people ultimately placed them in a poorer neighborhood, and that same attitude will keep them from staying home, whether it's essential work-related or not. Of course, this is not true of everybody in a poorer neighborhood (or even the opposite in a higher class neighborhood for that matter), but it does poke holes in this recent study.

The takeaway: It does not matter where you live or the job you have, attitude plays a huge role in your decision-making.



Have you noticed any comparable cases with your friends and acquaintances? Or do you have an example of an incidence conflicting with my theory?
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