5 ms·

Is this a resurgence of the "company town" of yore? Facebook now has work space, restaurants (nee "free meals"), plenty of other amenities (things like laundry,

by pbnjay 10y ago

Is this a resurgence of the "company town" of yore? Facebook now has work space, restaurants (nee "free meals"), plenty of other amenities (things like laundry, childcare, haircuts, massages, etc). Add in housing and you've basically recreated a mill town centered on tech.

cafard 10y ago
Code fifty lines, and what do you get?/Another day older and deeper in debt...
- _petronius 10y ago
  I have a feeling you'll like this Stan Rogers tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4
maxerickson 10y ago
Not really. It might be if they built it in some isolated part of Nebraska.
wmil 10y ago
The problem is that cities have become so opposed to allowing construction of middle class rental units that it takes the concerted effort of a multi-billion dollar corporation to build any.
- matwood 10y ago
  It's also not always quite that simple. My city is trying to pass a moratorium on residential building permits because the infrastructure is simply not built out enough to handle all the people moving to town. Yeah, yeah, public transportation, etc... but all of that takes time and money to build. The 2 lane road leading to my house is already overloaded and a builder is wanting to build another 2000 houses at the end of the road. Instead of waiting and relying on the state to improve the road, maybe we should do a better job at shifting the infrastructure costs to the builder when they put up a new apartment building or neighborhood.
  - Kalium 10y ago
    You know how in software quick and ugly hacks have this nasty tendency to stick around long past their sell-by date and hurt everything around them? A quick and ugly policy hack like a housing moriturium is the same way.
    - matwood 10y ago
      It's not a hack. If you want to use a software analogy it is akin to stop adding features until we get the current system cleaned up. That is often the right thing to do in software. The hack is not a moratorium, the hack is to keep adding houses until infrastructure finally fails and the system falls over. Brilliant plan.
      - Kalium 10y ago
        OK. It's a feature moritorium. It's an administrative choice that is very easy to prolong. Because it solves the immediate problem, it's also a choice that's very easy to keep making to avoid the significant cost of addressing the underlying problems. This is the sort of administrative choice that led to the Bay's housing crises.
r_smart 10y ago
The last step would be to start paying employees in company scrip. I'm sure it will be better this time.
- bbctol 10y ago
  Introducing Facebucks! Everything you buy is recorded to enhance your Facebook browsing advertisement experience!
mc32 10y ago
Yes, company towns went out of vogue decades ago... But in new growing economies, company built apartment complexes available to rent by employees is not unusual and foes effectively address housing needs in for example, Korea and China. They're not like the company town of yore or the ones in interior Brazil, etc. They don't have the aspect of milking every cent from their workers, on the other hand they do likely buy loyalty, to dome degree.
chiph 10y ago
Have they given any thought at all to what happens when an employee is let go? It's not easy to find a new place to live on short notice. "Bob, I'm sorry we had to have this meeting. But your performance has been slipping, and we've decided that today will be your last day as an employee with us. We have some boxes for you to clean out your cubicle, and the moving company will be here this afternoon to help you pack up your apartment."
nilkn 10y ago
One difference at least is that it's not isolated. It's not a brand new community. It's just a new subcommunity of an already thriving one. So the stakes associated with failure aren't nearly as high.

by pbnjay 10y ago

cafard 10y ago

Code fifty lines, and what do you get?/Another day older and deeper in debt...

_petronius 10y ago
I have a feeling you'll like this Stan Rogers tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4

maxerickson 10y ago

Not really. It might be if they built it in some isolated part of Nebraska.

wmil 10y ago

The problem is that cities have become so opposed to allowing construction of middle class rental units that it takes the concerted effort of a multi-billion dollar corporation to build any.

matwood 10y ago
It's also not always quite that simple. My city is trying to pass a moratorium on residential building permits because the infrastructure is simply not built out enough to handle all the people moving to town. Yeah, yeah, public transportation, etc... but all of that takes time and money to build. The 2 lane road leading to my house is already overloaded and a builder is wanting to build another 2000 houses at the end of the road. Instead of waiting and relying on the state to improve the road, maybe we should do a better job at shifting the infrastructure costs to the builder when they put up a new apartment building or neighborhood.
- Kalium 10y ago
  You know how in software quick and ugly hacks have this nasty tendency to stick around long past their sell-by date and hurt everything around them? A quick and ugly policy hack like a housing moriturium is the same way.
  - matwood 10y ago
    It's not a hack. If you want to use a software analogy it is akin to stop adding features until we get the current system cleaned up. That is often the right thing to do in software. The hack is not a moratorium, the hack is to keep adding houses until infrastructure finally fails and the system falls over. Brilliant plan.
    - Kalium 10y ago
      OK. It's a feature moritorium. It's an administrative choice that is very easy to prolong. Because it solves the immediate problem, it's also a choice that's very easy to keep making to avoid the significant cost of addressing the underlying problems. This is the sort of administrative choice that led to the Bay's housing crises.

r_smart 10y ago

The last step would be to start paying employees in company scrip. I'm sure it will be better this time.

bbctol 10y ago
Introducing Facebucks! Everything you buy is recorded to enhance your Facebook browsing advertisement experience!

mc32 10y ago

Yes, company towns went out of vogue decades ago... But in new growing economies, company built apartment complexes available to rent by employees is not unusual and foes effectively address housing needs in for example, Korea and China. They're not like the company town of yore or the ones in interior Brazil, etc. They don't have the aspect of milking every cent from their workers, on the other hand they do likely buy loyalty, to dome degree.

chiph 10y ago

Have they given any thought at all to what happens when an employee is let go? It's not easy to find a new place to live on short notice. "Bob, I'm sorry we had to have this meeting. But your performance has been slipping, and we've decided that today will be your last day as an employee with us. We have some boxes for you to clean out your cubicle, and the moving company will be here this afternoon to help you pack up your apartment."

nilkn 10y ago

One difference at least is that it's not isolated. It's not a brand new community. It's just a new subcommunity of an already thriving one. So the stakes associated with failure aren't nearly as high.