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A thought experiment: What about building a new city in the middle of nowhere, with the sole goal of extremely reducing living costs , and designing the laws sp

by petra 11y ago

A thought experiment: What about building a new city in the middle of nowhere, with the sole goal of extremely reducing living costs , and designing the laws specifically for that ,including making housing costs extremely cheap?

Tsagadai 11y ago
No need for thought experiments, we have history. Company towns are good examples of this (see [Roxby Downs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxby_Downs,_South_Australia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxby_Downs,_South_Australia)) as are cult headquarters. An oil rig is another example, housing costs are usually free (covered by employment), living facilities are provided free of charge and costs are usually fixed through corporate oversight and union opposition to changes. The funny thing is, most people don't want to live in places like that.
- petra 11y ago
  Well i've Googled "company towns", and the first result is "company towns| slavery by a different name". No wonder nobody wanted to live there. So it's probably can be done better.
- jeffbr13 11y ago
  The UK government built a bunch of "new towns" in England in the '50s and '60s, to take pressure off the housing situation in London at the time. The biggest is Milton Keynes, near Bletchley Park. It's a bit soulless in the same way as US suburbs, being built for the age of the car (roundabouts as far as the eye can see!), but it's 45 minutes from central London on the train, and was affordable for regular people to buy houses there. The new towns schemes seem largely successful 50 years later, and I can only imagine the reason we've not continued is because of the change in political taste for large infrastructure projects since then.
surfmike 11y ago
You will always have a chicken and egg problem with jobs. Company towns are one solution and as people pointed out, they can be horrible. But I think a fantastic idea would be developing an empty area, say, 45 minutes from a job hub, and running bus shuttles or trains there. Imagine a stop along the California High Speed Rail project that could get you to San Jose or San Francisco in 45 minutes. From there, I think you'd want a few things: - Henry George-style taxation by the local city on land values - Maximize the place:non-place ratio. Maximize space for parks, buildings, plazas and minimize space for parking lots, roads for cars etc. - Small lot sizes, row houses, and 4-6 story apartment buildings with excellent noise insulation - Dense enough so that cars are not necessary most of the time. Saves lots of land and the costs of operating cars

by petra 11y ago

Tsagadai 11y ago

No need for thought experiments, we have history. Company towns are good examples of this (see [Roxby Downs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxby_Downs,_South_Australia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxby_Downs,_South_Australia)) as are cult headquarters. An oil rig is another example, housing costs are usually free (covered by employment), living facilities are provided free of charge and costs are usually fixed through corporate oversight and union opposition to changes. The funny thing is, most people don't want to live in places like that.

petra 11y ago
Well i've Googled "company towns", and the first result is "company towns| slavery by a different name". No wonder nobody wanted to live there. So it's probably can be done better.
jeffbr13 11y ago
The UK government built a bunch of "new towns" in England in the '50s and '60s, to take pressure off the housing situation in London at the time. The biggest is Milton Keynes, near Bletchley Park. It's a bit soulless in the same way as US suburbs, being built for the age of the car (roundabouts as far as the eye can see!), but it's 45 minutes from central London on the train, and was affordable for regular people to buy houses there. The new towns schemes seem largely successful 50 years later, and I can only imagine the reason we've not continued is because of the change in political taste for large infrastructure projects since then.

surfmike 11y ago

You will always have a chicken and egg problem with jobs. Company towns are one solution and as people pointed out, they can be horrible. But I think a fantastic idea would be developing an empty area, say, 45 minutes from a job hub, and running bus shuttles or trains there. Imagine a stop along the California High Speed Rail project that could get you to San Jose or San Francisco in 45 minutes. From there, I think you'd want a few things: - Henry George-style taxation by the local city on land values - Maximize the place:non-place ratio. Maximize space for parks, buildings, plazas and minimize space for parking lots, roads for cars etc. - Small lot sizes, row houses, and 4-6 story apartment buildings with excellent noise insulation - Dense enough so that cars are not necessary most of the time. Saves lots of land and the costs of operating cars