We want the fruit of your labor, just not you.

In reading Kyle T. Mays, “African Indigenous History of the United States” I was stopped by the statement by Robin G. Kelly that the idea of the Dutch colonization of was that the Dutch wanted the land and the labor of South Africa, but not the people. We seem to be in a similar situation in light of housing for our workforce. We want workers in Silicon Valley, and New York City among others; they can work in our restaurants and shops, pay taxes, and teach our children but we just can’t afford to pay them enough to let them live there. While there are many calls for “affordable housing” in my town, St. Petersburg Florida, we were all supposed to be excited by the “micro apartments” that clock in at only 320 square feet. You see, like so many of us, we are told we can have dreams, but they must be small so that others can have their large dreams. While in Florida building is booming there only seems to be room for towers for millionaires- working people are going homeless as rents increase and buying a home becomes farther and farther out of reach. We need people to work but we don’t want to pay them or have their “affordable housing” in our backyard. Or ask Kelly says, We want their labor we just don’t want them.

I had to repost this after reading that it is no longer affordable to build affordable housing. Should we just refer to it as "Housing" or perhaps "out of reach" which is what it has become?