The New York Times - USA (2020-08-09)

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020 MB 3

RICH SCHINELLER, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

A LITTLE MOREthan two months ago, in
the aftermath of Memorial Day weekend,
New Yorkers of a certain caste indulged
rounds of condescension directed at a set
of anonymous partygoers in the Ozarks.
The catalyst was the viral image of a pool
party where people were grouped a shot
glass width apart, none wearing masks.
Wasn’t this the problem, ultimately?
The rubes and the deniers, with so little
regard for science, who were unwilling to
sacrifice, for the collective good, the pleas-
ures of a Miller Lite consumed at a float-
ing cocktail table.
Now, deep into summer, we find our-
selves witnessing the reckless defiance of
the ultra-privileged — the bankers and
technocrats, their charges, clients and
affiliates — the ones whose derisive snick-
ering at the habits of the Tesla-free can
typically be heard all the way to Branson,
Mo. A pandemic that has taken tens of
thousands of American lives will not im-
pede their good time; it will not upset the
rituals of the season. The boogieing con-
tinues as if it were Q3 2019.
And in the moneyed quarters of the
country, it really is. The stock market
remains inexplicably strong. And because
the rich, cosseted by significant safe-
guards and workarounds, rarely feel the
full force of catastrophe, the solidarity that
might come in a shared crisis is replaced
instead by stunning shows of individual
invincibility and obliviousness.
The elite and sophisticated are no less
likely to behave as deplorably as the rebel
masses; they simply have to deal with
fewer of the consequences. The virus has
proved ruthlessly efficient in decimating
the marginalized in far greater numbers
than the affluent. It has simply reiterated
the extent to which well-being is really
just something else that can be bought.
Last month, Alison Friedman Brod, a
Manhattan publicist who once delightedly
posed under a sign that read “I do not
cook. I do not clean. I do not fly commer-
cial,” posted a picture of herself to Face-
book with two doctors, on a house call,
against the backdrop of an expansive
Hamptons lawn. “Part of the stress of this
virus is living with uncertainty,” she wrote.
“I have avoided many sleepless nights by
constant testing.”
Perhaps some of those who attended a
fund-raiser on the East End of Long Island
two weeks ago, one that drew the ire of
New York State’s health commissioner,

were also getting their nasal passages

swabbed with regularity. The charity

event, attended by thousands of guests,

was supposed to be a socially distant

“drive-in concert” that featured, among

other performances, the Goldman Sachs

chief executive David Solomon channeling

his inner Deadmau5. Mr. Solomon, who

received a 20 percent raise in March that

brought him to $27.5 million a year, calls

himself DJ D-Sol. The evening’s organ-

izers claimed that the rules were followed,

but it hardly appeared that way to the

surveillance armies of social media.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was among

those to express fury. But is he really the

one to inspire fear and corrective behavior

among the wealthy? Recently, in response

to the suggestion that a substantial tax on

New York’s billionaires could close the

state’s enormous budget deficits, the gov-

ernor responded as if someone had pro-

posed killing off the warblers of the Adi-

rondacks.

“That means you would have no billion-

aires,” he cautioned, even though extinc-

tion of a group whose wealth grew by $77

billion in his state during the first three

months of the pandemic seems unlikely.

When you are in the business of servic-

ing the selfishly rich, you eventually find

yourself catering to a spirit of lawlessness.

Several days ago, Nello, a durable Italian

restaurant on Madison Avenue where a

bowl of middling capellini with red sauce

costs $36, had its liquor license suspended.

It was called out by state officials for

allowing diners to eat inside, in violation

of a citywide ban.

What of the children of the rich, in the

absence of what parenting guides would

call good modeling? Recently, a coro-

navirus spike in Greenwich, Conn., was

traced to a series of parties populated by

private school students. About half of the

41 cases that arose in the town the week of

July 19 occurred among young people

between the ages of 10 and 19 who had

attended the same constellation of get-

togethers.

It was hard to know how far the virus

had spread there, however. As an aide to a

local official told The Hartford Courant,

the teenagers and their families were not

cooperating with contact tracers. At least

one student had been infected at a birth-

Lifestyles of the Rich and Heedless

A “drive-in” charity event in the Hamptons last month featuring the electronic music duo the Chainsmokers drew thousands.

The ‘power of shame’

may be no match for the

entitled in a pandemic.

[email protected]; follow Ginia
Bellafante on Twitter: @GiniaNYT

GINIA BELLAFANTE BIG CITY

day party for a grown-up.

Remarking on the outbreak, Connecti-

cut’s governor, Ned Lamont, said that he

hoped the “power of shame’’ would

change the way that people conducted

themselves, a noble but doomed notion

given how robustly the country produces

immunities to it. Shame is not a sentiment

especially endemic to 21st-century Green-

wich, a place where quieter patrician

values long ago gave way to the modern

venalities — the uninterrupted gilt and the

six-car garages. A guy in a Ted Nugent

T-shirt raging at a 7-Eleven clerk who asks

him to wear a mask is no different than

the determined Fairfield County mom who

will not risk the success of her daughter’s

college application by revealing her mis-

deeds to disease detectives.

In many cases, the well-to-do want to

manage a public health crisis on their own

terms, choosing selectively from the

safety measures at hand. Many teachers

at private schools around New York are

fearful of returning to school in the ab-

sence of adequate testing for those with-

out the benefits of concierge medicine and

in environments where, even under the

best circumstances, children begin cough-

ing in October and don’t stop until the end

of March.

Parents everywhere, quite understand-

ably, hope that school can begin in its

conventional form. But certain parents

paying large tuitions to elite institutions

see it as a right to demand that classes

happen live, despite the lack of convincing

data on what a safe reopening of schools

would look like. Education is simply an-

other realm viewed through the lens of

return on investment.

Several days ago, a small group of par-

ents at Packer Collegiate, a private school

in Brooklyn Heights, drafted a letter to

administrators expressing outrage that

the school year would begin remotely.

They came from the worlds of finance, law,

design, dentistry — which is to say that

they did not make up a team of renowned

epidemiologists. And yet they wrote with

the apparent conviction that their own

knowledge was beyond dispute, helpfully

footnoting their missive with links to

articles in The Atlantic and other publica-

tions, as if the educators enacting the plan

had somehow failed to pay attention to the

virus coverage.

Implicit in these entitled outbursts is the

fear that, somehow, children of nearly

unfathomable advantage will fall behind.

But behind whom? And how many of

these parents, you have to wonder, quietly

spent the summer sequestered at home?

The Rise of the Pod Students

Readers responded at nytimes.com to
David Zweig’s article last Sunday about
how well-off students may weather the
pandemic. Comments have been edited.

SO MUCH HAND-WRINGINGabout pods.
These are desperate times, especially for

parents of younger kids. Can you blame
them for trying to find a solution to their
problems? I’m no apologist for the rich. I
was a Bernie supporter in the 2016 primary,
and a Hillary supporter in the general
election. My family is solidly middle class,
but decidedly not upper-middle class. We
have two working parents in our home and
a kid who really needs to be in school. I
can’t fault parents for doing what they can

in these extraordinary times.

ROSE, SEATTLE

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!If pods of 10 kids are
what works, then task the public schools
with creating them for every student: ra-
cially mixed, income-diverse pods. We are
all paying good money so that public schools
can educate our children — even people like
me, who have no children. And if towns have
to cut funds from other areas of the budget
— do it! It’s time for America to stop talking
about how we love children and start to care

for them in transformative ways.

DEBORAH MEISTER

THE PANDEMIC EXPOSEDthe actual state of
our public education system — kids are not
learning less by remote, rather parents are
more aware of how little learning kids actu-
ally receive. Some parents react by not
wanting to see it, and some are leaping in to
create their own schools. Maybe this pan-
demic will increase the academic expecta-

tions of public education in the United

States and return the focus to generating

adults who can read, write and think criti-

cally. One can always hope.

MOM, MIDLANTIC

I’VE SET UP A POD SCHOOLwith three other

parents. We aren’t wealthy, we’re just mid-

dle-class parents concerned about our kids’

education. I don’t think parents should be

made to feel bad for doing the best they can

for their child. Like a lot of parents, we

chose our house based on the school. If the

school isn’t working, a lot of us will make

the effort and spend the money to figure out

something that does.

DMV74, CLIFTON, VA.

I’M NOT DOING Aformal pod, but I’m doing a

nanny share with one other family for our

two first graders, and the nanny will over-

see their online learning. We need a nanny

as much for the child care as for the school

support — our 6-year-olds may be old

enough to take care of themselves for a

couple hours at a time, but it’s not good for

them to be on their own for six hours a day,

five days a week, all school year.

It is going to deplete our savings this year,

but we feel this is one of those reasons we

have savings. The only other alternative is

for one of us to quit our job — which has

much bigger financial ramifications in the

long run. I’m getting frustrated with the

blowback I’m getting about the equity of it

all. I feel for the many people for whom this

isn’t an option, but I’m not sure what they

want me to do instead. It doesn’t make sense

to quit my career when we can weather this

short-term bump in the road. It doesn’t

make sense to give up on my kid’s educa-

tion: That doesn’t help another kid be better

educated, just makes mine less educated.

JOHERE

WILL NOT APOLOGIZE,not for one second,

for using all of our resources to do whatever

it takes to educate our children. We already

pay five figures in property taxes and send

our kids to public schools yet can expect

nothing more than a Zoom class for months

because of the ineptitude of the federal

leadership, the selfishness of the American

people and the fear/reluctance of the teach-

ers’ union.

ROB, SEATTLE

THE PANDEMIC IS PEELINGaway the layers

of inequality in this country that have al-

ways existed but are now much more pro-

nounced. And nowhere will this be more

evident than in our education system. You’ll

see the Westchester elites with their expen-

sive education pods, while in the Bronx poor

kids will fall way behind. You’re all going to

see how quickly Black lives really don’t

matter as soon as the school year begins

and parents fight for their kids’ education

amidst a pandemic.

MIKE, LSC

READER COMMENTS

GREGG VIGLIOTTI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Doug Schachtel of Portfolio School addressed

parents in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., about

alternatives to remote learning.

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