4 ms·

When your domicile is strictly for sleeping (or at most laying down), guess where you spend more of your time? Out and about. Being a part of the community. Pro

When your domicile is strictly for sleeping (or at most laying down), guess where you spend more of your time? Out and about. Being a part of the community. Probably contributing more towards local business. I welcome this news because I expect it'll bring more life to the city. Now imagine a forward thinking municipality that subsidizes development of such pods, both construction and renting. Alongside dense walkable areas. It'd be great for business. And I'd wanna live there!

kulahan 2y ago
We're already in a situation where many Americans don't know a damn thing about providing food for themselves, and this even further takes us in that bleak direction. Hard pass. This is bleak and miserable.`
- wmichelin 2y ago
  "Let's not solve the housing crisis, let's worry about people's cooking abilities"
  - kulahan 2y ago
    I would not consider "give everyone a hole in the wall" any kind of solution to the housing crisis whatsoever, and encouraging a society where everyone is dependent on businesses for daily essentials makes it even harder to resolve these problems.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- bacchusracine 2y ago
  What do you have against people "more towards local business"? That's basically what is intended. Since people live in a pod, they'll eat out more often so that's more money extracted from them. Gotta keep the economy going, right?
  - NegativeLatency 2y ago
    I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not but, plenty of cities (not large American ones) manage to provide affordable housing with private space without people sleeping in pods.
cedws 2y ago
People are being forced into serfdom and live in pods due to stratospheric, inflated house prices. Here’s why that’s a good thing.
- frakkingcylons 2y ago
  That could be an article title from either the Onion or the WSJ Opinion section.
- water-data-dude 2y ago
  “serfdom” is a good way to characterize it, since it’s a lot harder to save money (and eventually be able to rent/buy a real place to live) if you have to go out for meals, entertainment, and meeting your social needs.
- buzzert 2y ago
  I don't think anybody's really being "forced" to do anything here. There are very affordable spots in the East Bay, some even along the BART.
  - an_guy 2y ago
    Pods are trying to normalize bare minimum shitty living conditions with high rent. Imagine paying $700 and not having personal toilet, kitchen, bathroom, a place to keep your things or even a place to comfortably sleep/sit. This is pure exploitation unless it's an exotic tourist attraction.
    - buzzert 2y ago
      Is it exploitation if it's completely voluntary? I don't think you and I have the same definition for that word.
      - an_guy 2y ago
        Yes, when you advertise it as a "cheap alternative" to being homeless
int_19h 2y ago
If you have to force people to "be a part of the community" by making their homes useless aside from sleeping, don't you think that's a strong indication that something must be wrong with "the community"?
quotemstr 2y ago
Same energy as those degrowth types who want to ban washing machines so that people forced to wash clothes by hand will do it communally to make it less boring.
falcolas 2y ago
I'd think that an average would go broke pretty quick, having to always eat out. Third spaces - particularly free third spaces - in the US don't really exist in most cities. At least not without facing accusations of vagrancy.
dialup_sounds 2y ago
This narration, but the B-roll is slums, favelas, housing projects, and Hong Kong coffin cubes.
bitcharmer 2y ago
How is this the top comment?
rustcleaner 2y ago
>Probably contributing more towards local business. Practically nobody can afford to do this. Everywhere is about nickel and diming people to be present there. Society has a very terribly serious rent-seeking problem. Expected value for most people's interactions economically is negative, meaning they pay more out than they receive for their other inputs. How else does the casin... err social entitlement ponzis, do-no-work bureaucracies and administrations, etc, survive? Somebody pays the house. What is needed is very high corporate taxes, and high taxes on any rent-based (interest, service fees [Netflix, Spotify, your ISP], etc) income after deductions but before dividends or buybacks. We must realign our society back to production if we want to return to material wealth and not end up navel-gazing in poverty like S. Asia.* We can do each others haircuts and oil changes until we're out of clippers and oil, but if not enough clippers and oil are being produced then we're all going to be materially poorer as GNP rises. (* Spidey's conspiracy-sense: I wonder if some of the push for mindfulness and other S. Asian esoterism lately isn't an attempt at a civilizational software patch on the West, using memetic components evolved to deal with abject poverty in the S. Asian continent over centuries, in preparation for an upcoming sundowning of western economic hegemony. Statecraft has as one of its requisites maintaining order and decorum of the citizen-human livestock.)
m463 2y ago
I think of it as something completely different... Spend a few days in the city, but have a larger more affordable house elsewhere away from the madness. also, this could be a way people "return to office" possibly until a job with sane policies comes around. (of course the curtain bit is unsettling and not sane)

kulahan 2y ago

We're already in a situation where many Americans don't know a damn thing about providing food for themselves, and this even further takes us in that bleak direction. Hard pass. This is bleak and miserable.`

wmichelin 2y ago
"Let's not solve the housing crisis, let's worry about people's cooking abilities"
- kulahan 2y ago
  I would not consider "give everyone a hole in the wall" any kind of solution to the housing crisis whatsoever, and encouraging a society where everyone is dependent on businesses for daily essentials makes it even harder to resolve these problems.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
bacchusracine 2y ago
What do you have against people "more towards local business"? That's basically what is intended. Since people live in a pod, they'll eat out more often so that's more money extracted from them. Gotta keep the economy going, right?
- NegativeLatency 2y ago
  I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not but, plenty of cities (not large American ones) manage to provide affordable housing with private space without people sleeping in pods.

cedws 2y ago

People are being forced into serfdom and live in pods due to stratospheric, inflated house prices. Here’s why that’s a good thing.

frakkingcylons 2y ago
That could be an article title from either the Onion or the WSJ Opinion section.
water-data-dude 2y ago
“serfdom” is a good way to characterize it, since it’s a lot harder to save money (and eventually be able to rent/buy a real place to live) if you have to go out for meals, entertainment, and meeting your social needs.
buzzert 2y ago
I don't think anybody's really being "forced" to do anything here. There are very affordable spots in the East Bay, some even along the BART.
- an_guy 2y ago
  Pods are trying to normalize bare minimum shitty living conditions with high rent. Imagine paying $700 and not having personal toilet, kitchen, bathroom, a place to keep your things or even a place to comfortably sleep/sit. This is pure exploitation unless it's an exotic tourist attraction.
  - buzzert 2y ago
    Is it exploitation if it's completely voluntary? I don't think you and I have the same definition for that word.
    - an_guy 2y ago
      Yes, when you advertise it as a "cheap alternative" to being homeless

int_19h 2y ago

If you have to force people to "be a part of the community" by making their homes useless aside from sleeping, don't you think that's a strong indication that something must be wrong with "the community"?

quotemstr 2y ago

Same energy as those degrowth types who want to ban washing machines so that people forced to wash clothes by hand will do it communally to make it less boring.

falcolas 2y ago

I'd think that an average would go broke pretty quick, having to always eat out. Third spaces - particularly free third spaces - in the US don't really exist in most cities. At least not without facing accusations of vagrancy.

dialup_sounds 2y ago

This narration, but the B-roll is slums, favelas, housing projects, and Hong Kong coffin cubes.

bitcharmer 2y ago

How is this the top comment?

rustcleaner 2y ago

>Probably contributing more towards local business. Practically nobody can afford to do this. Everywhere is about nickel and diming people to be present there. Society has a very terribly serious rent-seeking problem. Expected value for most people's interactions economically is negative, meaning they pay more out than they receive for their other inputs. How else does the casin... err social entitlement ponzis, do-no-work bureaucracies and administrations, etc, survive? Somebody pays the house. What is needed is very high corporate taxes, and high taxes on any rent-based (interest, service fees [Netflix, Spotify, your ISP], etc) income after deductions but before dividends or buybacks. We must realign our society back to production if we want to return to material wealth and not end up navel-gazing in poverty like S. Asia.* We can do each others haircuts and oil changes until we're out of clippers and oil, but if not enough clippers and oil are being produced then we're all going to be materially poorer as GNP rises. (* Spidey's conspiracy-sense: I wonder if some of the push for mindfulness and other S. Asian esoterism lately isn't an attempt at a civilizational software patch on the West, using memetic components evolved to deal with abject poverty in the S. Asian continent over centuries, in preparation for an upcoming sundowning of western economic hegemony. Statecraft has as one of its requisites maintaining order and decorum of the citizen-human livestock.)

m463 2y ago

I think of it as something completely different... Spend a few days in the city, but have a larger more affordable house elsewhere away from the madness. also, this could be a way people "return to office" possibly until a job with sane policies comes around. (of course the curtain bit is unsettling and not sane)