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

[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