> who can both walk across the street and afford the same level of service
The people (often of color) who work in the back of the nice restaurants everyone with means loves to eat at can't afford to eat there, much less live near their work.
The nannies who take care of the children of high earners (enabling them to be high earners and avoid the stress of a big chunk of parenting) can't afford to have nannies for their own kids. In fact, they often end up having less time with their own children than they do with their "masters" kids.
I could go on and on.
Your cherry picking the waitstaff (usually white people, who get high tips) and baristas makes your argument better; though I'm sure most baristas will disagree with you. Making coffee in a rather social setting is a rather nice job where you interact with customers, and can be fun (I've done it). What about the janitors, who usually work at night, alone, cleaning our toilets (I've done that too)? It is very alienating. If you did that for a year, the stuff Marx wrote about stops being some intellectual hocus pocus and actually starts to ring very very true.
What about the farm workers that pick your strawberries and blueberries for that $14 plate of pancakes?
The people (often of color) who work in the back of the nice restaurants everyone with means loves to eat at can't afford to eat there, much less live near their work.
The nannies who take care of the children of high earners (enabling them to be high earners and avoid the stress of a big chunk of parenting) can't afford to have nannies for their own kids. In fact, they often end up having less time with their own children than they do with their "masters" kids.
I could go on and on.
Your cherry picking the waitstaff (usually white people, who get high tips) and baristas makes your argument better; though I'm sure most baristas will disagree with you. Making coffee in a rather social setting is a rather nice job where you interact with customers, and can be fun (I've done it). What about the janitors, who usually work at night, alone, cleaning our toilets (I've done that too)? It is very alienating. If you did that for a year, the stuff Marx wrote about stops being some intellectual hocus pocus and actually starts to ring very very true.
What about the farm workers that pick your strawberries and blueberries for that $14 plate of pancakes?
Again I could go on and on.