Rich Europeans Flee Virus for 2nd Homes, Spreading Fear and Fury

[BeckyDem]

By Norimitsu Onishi and Constant Méheut

March 29, 2020
Updated 7:24 a.m. ET

ÎLE DE NOIRMOUTIER, France — On their peaceful island off France’s Atlantic Coast, some of the locals watched, with growing dread and rage, the images from Paris. As rumors began circulating about an imminent nationwide lockdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak, hordes of Parisians jammed into trains, an odd surfboard sometimes sticking out of the crowd.

There was no doubt about their destination.

“Irresponsible and selfish,” thought Dr. Cyrille Vartanian, one of the six physicians on Noirmoutier. With some time to spare — Paris was roughly five hours away — a local mayor, Noël Faucher, moved to block the only bridge to the mainland. But the national authorities said it would be illegal.

“We were powerless because people were not confined to their principal residences,” Mr. Faucher recalled, describing the influx as “an invasion.’’

Overnight, the island’s population nearly doubled, to 20,000. Nearly two weeks after the nationwide lockdown went into effect on March 17, there are about 70 suspected cases of the coronavirus on the island.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/world/europe/rich-coronavirus-second-homes.html

[marble falls]

1. Time to change the background music ...

[BeckyDem]

2. omg yes. Its coming.

[marble falls]

3. Its the same here and second homes. The Dallas cattlemen come down here to the "ranch"...

and fill their carts at the HEB. I don't mind them buying up all the briskets and Rib eyes soda pop (we don't drink that crap), but they took all the bread and TP, flour, beans, rice, like they plan on six months and that electric won't get disrupted. And then they show up everywhere while the rest if us stay inside.

My wife are hunker down and let it pass kind of folks, we always have enough and a month's worth in reserve but not everybody else knows how to do it or can afford it. Those Dallas yahoos have really stretched the resources of the bottom 30%.

Time to change the background music:

[BeckyDem]

4. That is awful. I have no doubt there will be more stories like yours and the OP

across the globe.

I think I saw a pic David Geffen tweeted from his yacht floating in isolation while enjoying the sunset. He said, stay safe everyone!

I remember Regan and his entire con job about small government and the wealth now has far surpassed even those dreams. To me they're a bunch of sociopaths.

[marble falls]

11. They need a serious reality check. I want to watch my tongue because I am disgusted and angry.

[BeckyDem]

13. Its hard for me too.

Steve Mnuchin insists Americans can live on just $17/day during pandemic

Published 12 mins ago

on March 29, 2020

By David Edwards


Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said that he expects Americans to be able to survive for two and a half months on just $1,200, which is about $17 per day.

In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan noted that the $1,200 relief checks that many Americans will be getting would not be enough in some parts of the country.

“I think the entire package provides economic relief overall for about 10 weeks,” Mnuchin explained. “Hopefully we will kill this virus quicker and we won’t need it, but we have liquidity to put into the American economy to support American workers and American business.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/steve-mnuchin-insists-americans-can-live-on-just-17-day-during-pandemic/

[marble falls]

15. If I had a list, he'd be in the top four or five. IF I had a list. There's no way to punish this ...

kind of guy. He wasn't elected. I just hope his genes come out of the gene pool. $17/day wouldn't hardly pay the utilities for our condo.

We need to flatten more than the coronavirus curve. We need to work on the wealth disparity, too.

[BeckyDem]

17. The power structure must change. He is but another sociopath, there will never be enough

money for WS.

[2naSalit]

6. About 70% of housing untis in my state

are vacation homes. The same thing happened here in Montana. Only they bought up everything in the rural towns too so that we locals are left scrounging. It will be the same when they all get sick, there will be no beds or ventilators for we locals... thanks rich folks.

[marble falls]

10. Well they have proven how useless they are and how its us who make it work ...

I'm starting to think its time to eat the rich.

[2naSalit]

19. Probably time for that except they are full of fat

so might not be good for our health.

[marble falls]

27. So be it. We all sit around here chewing the fat! But actually its time for the privileged ...

to face some uncertainty.

[2naSalit]

29. And reality that everyone else is familiar with.

[marble falls]

30. That's right. Like "whats going to happen to us AFTER the Trumpovirus is over?" or ...

"do we really want to have been perceived as profiting during an emergency that seems to have affected lower income 'category' extremely disproportionately?"

Yeah. Some uncertainty might do good.

I do know this: I DO NOT want to read one fucking word about the travails Gwyneth Paltrow or Mrs Mnuchin have been going though in solidarity with the rest of us. If she moves to light a candle, I am grabbing a fire extinguisher.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

26. Agree,we will do fine

Without rich people , republicans and evangelical nuts and assholes.

[marble falls]

28. I know I have had it up to here with the false notion that the wealthy and their corporations ...

are deserving of welfare and it's the responsible thing that people do when they die because of they can't afford treatment or medication. This corona virus is not spread by the most of us who have an educated opinion of whats happening never leaving town and self isolating its done all these wealthy yahoos who've been contact with people from all over the world before the virus and now "the ranch" sounds like fun.

There's gonna be some changes when the Orange Blunder finally goes down. I notices a lot of "moderate" Republicans are working out in the open with Democrats, even Kelltanne's husband George is brutal on Trumpski.

They know, too: Trump is going down in November.

[GemDigger]

5. The second homes around here that are normally only used 3 months of the year are getting

used. A very early influx of the rich and selfish.

[2naSalit]

7. Your county

during the 2010 census showed that over 71% of all housing units were vacation homes, it has only increased since then. In my county, which is smaller, we have the same thing. Trophy homers showed up a couple weeks ago and wiped out the grocery stores which are finally getting stocked up again, sort of. If you go to the river, you'll see they are out fishing, many of them, and I see them in the stores during my weekly shopping, they seem to think we don't notice them in their pretend local attire. A lot of them are also showing up in their fancy campermobiles to park at a friend's trophy home so they are actually doubling up and also filling up the dispersed camp sites in the forests.

*I was a low level supervisor for a large portion of both your and Madison Counties back then. Big Sky is a big contributor to the trophy-homism.

[GemDigger]

9. That's it in a nutshell.

I knew that the banks and Rich's (rich peeps) bought out a lot of the homes but I did not realize it was that high of a percentage. That is very discouraging.

[2naSalit]

16. It's why we locals can't afford rent... if we can find a place to rent.

[appalachiablue]

8. "Lifestyles of the Rich & Selfish" Sequel with Robin Leach, Lol

[dalton99a]

12. The peasants serving them:

[BeckyDem]

14. omg and with the baby they're needing to work.

I go from wanting to cry to wanting to scream out loud.

[2naSalit]

18. I would like to see someone

grab each and every one of them by the earlobe pinched between fingernails* and drag them into an overfilled temporary morgue in their chosen bugout location. Then forced to return to their claimed primary residences.

*When I was young, my mom would pinch our earlobe and drag us to the nearest weapon for spanking,like a favorite wooden spoon. Had many broken on my fanny. Eventually she just resorted to one of the sneakers off her feet.

[BeckyDem]

21. It is infuriating to see these stories.

We all realize there are many more not even possible to report.

[logme]

20. this specific case is baffling but moving out is not necessary a bad thing if properly planned

I think I reacted to a similar post a few days ago. I just wanted to add some context, this is not specific to rich people & this is not necessarily an irrational decision.

Many French people (and not just the rich ones) have a old family house in the countryside. They can choose to be confined in those houses (which are usually much bigger & either isolated or located in far less densely populated area). For people with kids it makes it easier to deal with the current measures. You do need however to take into account the accessibility to medical care services.

Unless you rush to densely populated enclaves ( such as a small island ), it is not irrational. This will not necessarily spread the virus since you should respect the protocols while moving & stay in confinement anyway when you reached your destination.

What was truly insane was those people rushing already packed trains in order to get out of several major European cities at the last minute.

The latest measures in France were actually aiming at slowing down the speed of the diffusion (especially in densely populated area). Containment had already failed in Europe and north America weeks ago ( ever since Italy's outbreak got out of control).
At this point the only thing that can help curb the wave is proper confinement and social distancing in your daily life for essential workers.

The issue is mainly people who do refuse to fully respect the confinement. A trait that you can found among the 1 % as well as the less privileged. From my ( anecdotal ) observations, I noticed that upper & middle class citizen tend to abide more strictly to the rules than poorer & oftentimes less educated people ( especially migrants from north Africa who genuinely seem to struggle with those socially disrupting rules). On the other hand I also saw a couple of young & wealthy morons basically racing in the empty street of Paris with their porch & Ferrari as if all this was a game.

PS : A police car soon followed them, I guess it ended up binge a costly trip ( ~1500$ dollars fine each).


Cheers from Paris

[BeckyDem]

22. Challenging times, no doubt about it. Its not so much rich bashing for the sake

of a scapegoat imo. But instead an anger at how resources are low and how they're being utilized. Here in the US the rich were just bailed out, again. Our emergency workers have no proper clothing, masks, it is unacceptable but here we are.

You stay safe and be well.

[Igel]

24. You go to your country house

and say you'll stay confined, that's fine.

As long as you interact with nobody there. Don't need to go a store.

Thing is, most of the time they don't notice that they *say* they'll stay confined and then, a few days later, cite a completely predictable need as a valid excuse for not staying confined. They don't stop to think that their second home doesn't have a month's supply of food, that they need to interact with a neighbor, that they need to get gasoline or have somebody come out to turn on the water.

They *could* have known it, and would have known it if you'd asked them in most situations. But since never needing to break confinement is important, it becomes a truth. Then when the actual facts come up, well, of course--if it's *necessary* who can blame them?

My wife objected when I went out to the store 9 days ago. Had to pick up a few things. Then Saturday she went out. And Sunday. Then Tuesday. And Thursday. Yesterday we were out of things that I use (and nobody else) so I went to the store. And she was annoyed--when she got home from her errand--that I had gone out and might pose a risk. Two times out in 9 days, and the world's going to end. But 5 times in 9 days, well, she saw reasons for each of *those* trips.

That's how human reasoning works. As soon as somebody says, "But I'm not like that!" the first thing you know is that they probably have what seems to them to be a good reason for the self-delusion.

[lettucebe]

23. Really stupid to run to areas with very little medical help

Rich obviously does not equal smart

[Igel]

25. Why worry?

By running away, you make it so you're perfectly safe.

Notice that "spreading illness" isn't a big deal in this article.

Fear and fury, those are the real problems. Blaming others. Buying up stuff.

Spreading illness and possibly death? Seriously, can we get back to the important social and economic issues?

[marble falls]

31. Like the second homers who aren't taking any of this seriously come into town and seriously ...

upset the structure: continuing driving around, buying out supplies?