9 ms·

Company town

• connoredel 10y ago
  I grew up a few miles south of Roebling, NJ -- a company town created for the Roebling Steel Mill. Some nice pictures here: http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2013/05/roebling_a_little_hamlet_with.html http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2013/05/roebling_a_little...
  • kixpanganiban 10y ago
    Thanks for sharing! Somewhat reminds me of The Walking Dead's Alexandria.
• p4wnc6 10y ago
  15201 Maple Systems Road
  • jaytaylor 10y ago
    Saving any other people like me a google search: 15201 Maple Systems Road was the Simpsons’ home while living in Cypress Creek after Homer was headhunted by the Globex Corporation. From the outside it appeared structurally similar to the Simpson's home in Springfield; however, the interior was much larger and more modern. They were welcomed shortly after arriving by the CEO of the Globex Corporation, Hank Scorpio, who was participating in a fun run. Many of the house's functions were automated, including a self-cleaning oven, dirt-patrolling vacuum cleaner, and an automatic sprinkler system. After Homer tackled an escaping secret agent at work, Hank Scorpio promised that when he returned home there would be another story in his house. http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/15201_Maple_Systems_Road http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/15201_Maple_Systems_Road
    • RankingMember 10y ago
      I often think that our real-life Hank Scorpio is Elon Musk.
• pauldprice 10y ago
  A truly phenomenal company town in the United States is Kohler, Wisconsin
  • hackaflocka 10y ago
    Could you elaborate please? What makes it phenomenal? Also, is it still the traditional model of a company town (i.e. everything owned by the same co.)?
  • deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
• ubernostrum 10y ago
  This article seems to paint an awfully rosy picture of what were, on the whole, pretty awful places. In particular it's nice to talk about all the "ideals" of raising people up into the middle class, etc., when the reality was that company towns were explicitly used to impose and perpetuate debt slavery: you'd be paid only in the company's scrip, which was what you had to use to pay rent on your company home and buy things in the company store, and of course the prices were set to ensure you'd never quite be able to live on it, despite being required to live in the company town and shop at the company store. That meant you went into debt to the company and worked more to pay it off, but could never earn enough to clear the debt, and would recruit your children from a young age (remember when we didn't have those awful child-labor laws meddling in the "free market"?) to work for the company, too, carrying it on to the next generation. This is the source of the chorus in the song "Sixteen Tons": You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store.
  • jdminhbg 10y ago
    Your rebuttal to this extensively-documented Wikipedia article is the chorus to "Sixteen Tons"?
    • jsprogrammer 10y ago
      You missed the first paragraph.
      • jdminhbg 10y ago
        I went back and checked. The chorus is still the only piece of evidence in there.
        • screature2 10y ago
          See also these references: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip 2. http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/company-towns/ http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/compan... 3. http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/ref/collection/aah/id/29047 http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/ref/collection/aah/id/29047 (page 7, 'Abusive Practices') 4. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/americas-company-towns-then-and-now-180956382/?no-ist http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/americas-company-towns-... etc. etc. ad nauseum. This is a pretty well documented terrible thing.
• batiudrami 10y ago
  I lived for six months in a town called Leinster, a company town 1000km from the nearest major city (Perth, Australia). It was run to support a nickel mine, back before FIFO (fly in, fly out) rosters were commonplace and everyone lived in the city. Interesting place. You weren't supposed to drink the water so people would go to town and get distilled water (though I was at school and we just drank from the water fountains connected to mains water). In general though it had much better facilities than similar towns of that size due to being funded by the mining company. Wikipedia says it still has about 700 people - though I believe the town was shut for several years while the mine was in care and maintenance (the nickel price is not high enough to justify mining at the time so they operate on barebones staff doing equiment maintenance and dewatering) - and by the sounds of things that is happening again now so I'm not sure what it's like.
  • CatsoCatsoCatso 10y ago
    Were the shops and local conveniences (pubs, bars etc) company owned & run or contacted out to other companies? How free was a private business able to establish a means of supplying services to those who lived and worked in the town?
    • compiler-guy 10y ago
      Another question: Are you paid in cash, or in company scrip?
      • batiudrami 10y ago
        My parents were teachers at the school (it was a 6 month posting while the permenant Principal took long service leave) so they were paid by the government. I would be very surprised to hear that people were paid in anything other than cash, though wages would have taken into consideration that accommodation and food was free (as it does with all on site mine workers). Mine workers in Australia are paid very well in comparison to a lot of other industries so a debt cycle mentioned by others probably didn't apply as much.
    • 10y ago
• twelvechairs 10y ago
  Not sure why this has been posted but I will say that as someone who works in planning and development I wouldnt be surprised if we see a return to company towns soon. For all their faults they can potentially be hugely beneficial to employers and employees in driving down the amount of money put towards housing, avoid poor planning and design outcomes caused by the interface between government and developers and also can be planned for strategic locations where governments have not shown initiative. Public housing could do similar things (and as a case study was a major factor in the econmic success of hong kong - for all its faults) and isnt a million miles away in what it does although is often considered very differently, but most modern governments shy away from this.
  • naveen99 10y ago
    I am not sure that a company can retain control of the town once a lot of employees start living there. The employees would control the government on the next election and start collecting tax from the company. This is probably one of the main reasons disney doesn't allow general employees to live in its company town next to Orlando. But universities run a nice little business with student dorms and graduate student housing. I don't see why companies can't build apartments...
    • williamscales 10y ago
      In fact, I'm pretty sure that building apartments to rent to employees was part of Google's most recent proposal to the Mountain View city council.
      • raywu 10y ago
        Google's proposal (2015) for the new campus did not include housing: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/google-unveils-plan-for-new-corporate-campus/?_r=0 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/google-unveils-plan... >>> One big issue is still outstanding: Google’s proposal does not include new housing for the area, but company executives have said on several occasions that they want to add housing near their campus. More recent article points to 9000 units proposed by anther company: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/01/13/sobrato-kick-starts-residential-in-mountain-views.html http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/01/13/sobrato-k... >>> Sobrato’s proposal — which is still in early form and could yet change — is the first application for a project that includes housing in North Bayshore, but others could follow. The council has identified roughly a half-dozens sites where housing is being studied, and has laid the groundwork for up to 9,000 new units. Most of those potential housing sites are owned by Google, which has publicly stated its interest in redeveloping at least some of them for housing, though it has not moved forward on any plans.
• prawn 10y ago
  For those who find this interesting, Fordlandia is a book about Henry Ford's attempt to create a utopia in Brazil for employees sourcing rubber from plantations. Spoiler: it's a bit of a disaster. That said, a lot of its failings are due to the specifics of the location and lack of local knowledge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordl%C3%A2ndia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordl%C3%A2ndia
• Keverw 10y ago
  The whole story about Facebook getting into real estate and building apartments makes me think they're trying to build a company town.
  • teen 10y ago
    would probably be a pretty dope town though
• gregimba 10y ago
  The first time I saw a company town was in Baja and it was a gypsum mine. Oddly colorful place given everything was coated in the white powder.
• akbar501 10y ago
  The monopsony, which is infrequent in today's markets, is what caused these types of cities/towns. Specifically, a labor market monopsony.
  • _nalply 10y ago
    Monopsony is buyer-side monopoly, i. e. there is only one buyer. A labor market monopsony means that there is only one company employing people.
• taneq 10y ago
  A lot of remote towns around Australia started out as camps built by mining companies to support nearby mine sites. These camps have a significantly different connotation, though - generally accommodation, catered food and amenities (gym, pool, etc.) are free for the workers. Aside from the inherent stresses which come with the FIFO lifestyle, they're pretty nice places.
• m-i-l 10y ago
  Most of the examples of company towns in this article are from the late nineteenth century onwards, when working and living conditions were already starting to improve. But it is worth looking at the earlier history of model villages[0], starting with New Lanark[1] established in 1786. These were founded at the very start of the industrial revolution, when working and living conditions were deteriorating following the mass migration from the countryside to the new industrial towns with their "dark satanic mills". In this context, the model villages were much more genuinely focussed on the social and humanitarian aspects than the later company towns. You could argue that model villages were more about proving that you could still treat people well and make a profit, whereas the later company towns were more focussed on simply trying to maximise profit. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_village [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Lanark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Lanark
• curiousDog 10y ago
  This is still pretty common in India, AFAIK. You usually have an industrial plant (like a steel mill, aluminum plant, sugar factory etc) and the employees are given housing in the "company town" along with a free school, hospital, electricity etc.
• bane 10y ago
  Overseas U.S. military bases are often very much like this, with the dual need to house troops and their families, they often have schools, shopping, and various other services in place. It's very common for deployed families to come back after 2 or 3 years overseas with almost no knowledge of the local language, area or customs because the comprehensiveness of the "little America" on-post is so complete. You can even buy cars, American breakfast cereal and fast foods and get TV shows and radio all pumped in at almost no cost differential to being in the U.S. If the bases aren't large enough, they'll often set up an American enclave nearby that extends the services and provides a few neighborhoods for the families to have extended social interactions. When I was touring in Germany, I came across the town of Vilseck, which has a large American base nearby. The town was full of deployed families, and imagine my surprise when I came across an honest to god Soul Food restaurant! After eating German and Italian food for a couple weeks, getting some very traditional American food was a very welcome site. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1641647-d4233161-Reviews-Angelo_s_Soul_Food-Vilseck_Upper_Palatinate_Bavaria.html https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1641647-d4233...
  • chiph 10y ago
    While everything you said is true (I spent 2 years at Hahn AB in the mid-80's), there's no comparison with the classic robber-baron run company town. The commissary (military supermarket) is run as a benefit of service, and even if you live in base housing, you're welcome to buy on the economy. The commissary doesn't ship everything in from the US, just items they can't source locally. So Pop-Tarts were imported from the US (accept no substitute!), but the meat and the Brötchen were bought from German suppliers. Whereas the company store in the company town, as was said elsewhere, was run to the benefit of the company. Prices were set such that even buying just staples there (eggs, flour, etc) would keep you in perpetual debt.
  • compiler-guy 10y ago
    One very big difference between a military company town and the ones described in this article: The military pays you in cash, which is useful anywhere US dollars are accepted. Cash gives you freedom to exit the company town without losing all that stored value.
• grkvlt 10y ago
  The article contains this fascinating gem: > Fordlândia was established by American industrialist Henry Ford in 1928 as a prefabricated industrial town in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. Intended to be inhabited by 10 thousand people, it failed; and the city was abandoned in 1934. More details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordl%C3%A2ndia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordl%C3%A2ndia