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TashaYarAtYourAww t1_iu3rawz wrote

Reply to comment by Frequent_Jelly_4138 in How can we incentivize real discussions around solutions to home affordability in CT? by otter_spud

I’m not talking about housing prices here. I’m checking up on this notion:

> I personally don’t see an issue with an area relying on lower demographics to do unskilled labor and blue collar work. That’s how it’s been for centuries.

It sounds like you are explicitly advocating for an underclass to exist from whom the wealthy may extract labor at low cost. These workers in turn are not seen as members of the community despite the fact that they do the community building work of child care, elder care, food service, retail service, delivery service and more. Why are they not allowed to live in the community that they build? Because they are members of a “lower demographic”. I don’t know what you mean but I wanted to point out exactly the kind of system that rests on that belief.

Sure, I used a hot word. But you also didn’t even attempt to answer my question: how long should the commute of these workers be? In another comment I believe you say they shouldn’t even live in Connecticut anymore. So how long should a worker drive or ride a bus to serve your coffee?

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Frequent_Jelly_4138 t1_iu4tlwg wrote

However long it takes to get from a community that they can comfortably afford, like this isn’t some wild notion. And you’re very wrong the lower class does benefit from this system as well. They make good money that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

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TashaYarAtYourAww t1_iu4ywgo wrote

Okay, the coffee shop employee cannot afford to live anywhere in CT. Should they take a bus from RI? Is New Jersey too far?

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Frequent_Jelly_4138 t1_iu5afxb wrote

I see that as an income issue not a travel issue, you’d be hard pressed to find the salary that unskilled labor gets in CT outside of CT. It may not be enough but it’s a whole hell of a lot better than elsewhere. Out of curiosity although I may disagree, how do you think this issue would be solved. I feel like we may disagree morally on this issue but I am always happy to learn how others feel these issues can be fixed. There is a middle ground somewhere and that’s how we fix these issues

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TashaYarAtYourAww t1_iu6es7r wrote

I also see that as an income issue, yes. I responded to initially because of your particular phrasing that it’s a good thing for a community to avail itself of low wage work by another class (or “lower demographic”) of people that aren’t community members. That is an alarming sentiment to me. This work has to be done for society to function. Care work, domestic work, service work, agricultural work, and many other types of work command sub-livable wages. Those workers do the work that supports the functioning and quality of life for wealthy residents. The people who benefit from that labor and the people who perform that labor should be neighbors, members of the same community. Fix it with wage increases, fix it with housing price adjustments, fix it with wealth redistribution and whatever else it takes. But start seeing the people who do the largely invisible, sometimes unpaid, many times underpaid labor in your community as FULL MEMBERS of your community. None of this “lower demographics” keep them in another town business.

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