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.

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

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?

> 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.

Isn’t this kind of an argument in favor of slavery, though? Like, there should be an underclass that serves a community, but the community will reject them and give them nothing in return. I grew up in a wealthy CT suburb full of restaurants, cafes, schools, daycare facilities, elder care facilities, and more. All of the people providing the labor to run the town have to live somewhere else because we as a society undervalue their labor while we simultaneously rely completely on it? Seems fucked.

> Never understood the argument that if you work in a city you should be able to afford it

How long should a low wage worker’s commute be?