What a pack of ignorance, stereotypes, and distortion!
1. Ignorance - California is far from the only state in "shelter-in-place" shutdown. If David Cole is ignorant of that, maybe he should read the news once in a while.
2. Stereotypes - California, contrary to the title, is not any closer to "Third World" than any other state in the US, and may be farther from that status than some.
3. Distortion - "Essential" is defined very broadly. It includes shopping for food and other consumables. It includes shopping at hardware stores. Which means store employees and delivery people are "essential". It includes hospital and doctor visits, which necessarily means a wide array of medical and support staff are "essential". It includes buying take-out food from restaurants, and therefore some of the restaurant workers. It includes people essential to many businesses' operations, so as businesses decide who are essential, there are production and support people still going to work (e.g. me and many in my work group).
I realize California-Bashing is a beloved sport for many conservatives, but could lovers of that "sport" at least post articles less stupid than the article in this thread's OP? Day--yum, that article is DUMB! So dumb I wonder if the author really resides in California.