Chris Hedges and Maximillian Alvarez: Workers are Essential, Capitalists are Not

Image by Eli Christman via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

TheRealNews on Mar 3, 2023

TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss his recent book on the lives of frontline workers in the COVID-19 pandemic, The Work of Living.

Working men and women kept the country from disintegrating during the pandemic. They staffed the hospitals, stocked the shelves, drove the buses, manned the cash registers, cooked and delivered the food, grew the produce, drove the trucks and collected the garbage. While they were recognized as essential frontline workers they were also sacrificed in disproportionate numbers in a system of grotesque inequality.

In late 2020 and early 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Maximillian Alvarez conducted a series of interviews with workers battling to survive. They did not have the luxury of working from home, ordering what they needed and having it delivered. Their jobs, difficult before the pandemic, now came with grave health risks and little protection.

Alvarez, as he does in his podcast, Working People, set out to tell their story. He raises up the voices and lives of those who the commercial media have largely rendered invisible, laying bare the huge divide between the haves and the have-nots.

Joining me to discuss his book The Work of Living and the untold stories of working men and women is Maximillian Alvarez.

Transcript

From the archives:

American Capitalism’s Growing Dysfunction, by Rainer Shea

Inflation, Layoffs, and the $1 Trillion War Budget, by Scott Scheffer

U.S. Versus China Covid Deaths – A Symptom of Diseased Capitalism, by Finian Cunningham

Corporate Greed Keeps The Pandemic Alive, by Pete Dolack

Chris Hedges: Temp: The Real Story of What Happened to Your Salary, Benefits and Job Security

How the Pandemic Laid Bare the Cruelty of Capitalism, by Kenn Orphan