As the pandemic continues, inequality deepens. Regular people continue to struggle, such as 33-year-old Michael Hurley from Havertown, Pennsylvania. He lost his manager position because his firms’ door-to-door consumer surveys were shut down. His fiance, Shanon, still works as a second-grade teacher, but the pandemic has impacted their economic status greatly. They are trying to stretch their food dollars by buying lots of rice and pasta. They keep their thermostat at 67 degrees to avoid any further costs. Their story is just one of many who are struggling financially during this pandemic.

To combat the pandemic, many celebrities have been asking for donations from their followers rather than donating themselves to help people like Michael Hurley. Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis recently endorsed “Quarantine Wine” by a company named Nocking Point. The company claims that 100 percent of its profits will be donated for coronavirus relief efforts. Other celebrities like the rapper Ice Cube and the band My Chemical Romance sell branded merchandise for coronavirus related causes. Others simply ask fans on social media to donate directly to pandemic relief funds.

These celebrities’ intentions are good, but they fail to consider who their audience is. Many of them are not privileged enough to be lounging around their mansions, drinking wine all day. 26 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in the last five weeks. POLITICO calculates that the unemployment rate will peak up to 25 percent by the beginning of summer. The last time the unemployment rate was this high, the country was steeped in the Great Depression.

Now is not the time to be asking for such donations. People are struggling to survive on their low or non-existent income. It seems as though celebrities have forgotten how different they are from their fans. They are putting the responsibility of “public health and economic survival” onto the wrong shoulders.

Celebrities are trying to seem like normal people. They may participate in the same fun activities that we do such as drink wine or bake, but that doesn’t make their socioeconomic status equal. Many lower-class people struggle to feed themselves during this pandemic. Not all of us are living in a comfortable mansion with 300 rooms and can keep ourselves safe during the quarantine. 

Many fans face the dangers of being exposed to the virus because they cannot afford not to work. This quarantine is making evident just how prominent the wealth gap is in America. Celebrities should be encouraging other celebrities to donate their money and help their followers directly rather than endorsing things like “Quarantine Wine.”