Google to buy 300 modular apartments because employees can't afford rent

[angelatc]

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/1...ng-crisis-fix/

MOUNTAIN VIEW — With rental costs skyrocketing and homes out of reach for many, Google has hit on a solution that may help it attract workers to the crushingly expensive Bay Area.

The tech giant plans to buy 300 units of modular housing to serve as temporary employee accommodations on its planned “Bay View” campus at NASA’s Moffett Field, according to a source familiar with the plan.

As someone on Twitter said, "Google in reinventing feudalism!"

[Matt Collins]

This is what happens when the local government prevents new construction

[Anti Federalist]

The more things change...the more the stay the same.

[AuH20]

This can't keep continuing. Anything is better. Even a meteor.

[TheTexan]

This can't keep continuing. Anything is better. Even a meteor.

Oh no! Home prices are expensive!

[AuH20]

Oh no! Home prices are expensive!

The future.

[AuH20]

Mentally deficient millennials have swallowed the lie. Look at these fools. This is a human hamster. Who wants to live in an ugly, minimalist 'storefront' box? This is supposed to be the promise of the future? End us now and get it over with.

[IMG]https://static01.********/images/2016/07/21/us/21CITYHOUSING1/21CITYHOUSING1-master768-v2.jpg[/IMG]

[angelatc]

Mentally deficient millennials have swallowed the lie. Look at these fools. This is a human hamster. Who wants to live in an ugly, minimalist 'storefront' box? This is supposed to be the promise of the future? End us now and get it over with.

[IMG]https://static01.********/images/2016/07/21/us/21CITYHOUSING1/21CITYHOUSING1-master768-v2.jpg[/IMG]

I read a good article about this. I can't find it but the author said it's hard for several reasons, one of which was was that things wear out faster. She ended it saying we should stop trying glamorizing and mimicking poverty.

[angelatc]

Oh no! Home prices are expensive!

Getting employers to buy our health care worked out so well, let's do housing next!

[juleswin]

Getting employers to buy our health care worked out so well, let's do housing next!

Govt incentivizing employees to buy health care from their employers is not even close to the same thing as employers going into the market without govt incentive or coercion to buy temp housing for their employees. This is madness to compare the two cases. Also most employers offer discounted food to their employees making them buy food from the company restaurant. This has been going on for years and that worked out ok, this is what you compare it with not govt healthcare. Which btw has worked relatively well just as long as you continue to work for the company.

But unlike healthcare, you can change housing without too much hassle. I think the fear I see in this thread is not that this idea would fail but that it would be widely successful and make it that much harder for anyone to compete with google.

Welcome to the dog eat dog sorta free market, get rich or die competing.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Does Google also include one of their wussy-mobiles in the driveway? Or do they even have a driveway?

[angelatc]

But unlike healthcare, you can change housing without too much hassle....

Just gonna leave this here.

[heavenlyboy34]

couldn't afford the rent...so out the door they went...

[Ender]

Govt incentivizing employees to buy health care from their employers is not even close to the same thing as employers going into the market without govt incentive or coercion to buy temp housing for their employees. This is madness to compare the two cases. Also most employers offer discounted food to their employees making them buy food from the company restaurant. This has been going on for years and that worked out ok, this is what you compare it with not govt healthcare. Which btw has worked relatively well just as long as you continue to work for the company.

But unlike healthcare, you can change housing without too much hassle. I think the fear I see in this thread is not that this idea would fail but that it would be widely successful and make it that much harder for anyone to compete with google.

Welcome to the dog eat dog sorta free market, get rich or die competing.

Absolutely agree.

[juleswin]

Just gonna leave this here.

I was talking about red tape. My point is that when you want to get a new place to live or rent comparative to your previous residence, all you really need is the money(which is usually about the same with the old residence) and wiliness to move. So relatively speaking, it is less hassle than trying to change insurance.

While you are at it, you can try to address the other points I made

[Anti Federalist]

But unlike healthcare, you can change housing without too much hassle. I think the fear I see in this thread is not that this idea would fail but that it would be widely successful and make it that much harder for anyone to compete with google.

No, the fear is that, between government collusion and interference in the market making it impossible to afford housing, Srewgle is using that to re-introduce the concept of the "company town", where you live in company housing, visit the company doctor, shop at the company store and ultimately get paid in company scrip, good only at the company store.

Which is to say, a system of polite indentured servitude.

[angelatc]

No, the fear is that, between government collusion and interference in the market making it impossible to afford housing, Srewgle is using that to re-introduce the concept of the "company town", where you live in company housing, visit the company doctor, shop at the company store and ultimately get paid in company scrip, good only at the company store.

Which is to say, a system of polite indentured servitude.

It's problematic on every level. Can you imagine the shrieking if Walmart had done something similiar?

[angelatc]

I was talking about red tape.

So was I. Health care was simpler before insurance became tied to employment.

[CPUd]

No, the fear is that, between government collusion and interference in the market making it impossible to afford housing, Srewgle is using that to re-introduce the concept of the "company town", where you live in company housing, visit the company doctor, shop at the company store and ultimately get paid in company scrip, good only at the company store.

Which is to say, a system of polite indentured servitude.

No they pay USD, and if you are paying less than $1000 a month for rent, you can leave the job after 2-5 years, go back to flyover country and pay cash for whatever house you want.

[angelatc]

No they pay USD, and if you are paying less than $1000 a month for rent, you can leave the job after 2-5 years, go back to flyover country and pay cash for whatever house you want.

Learn economics, son.

[Swordsmyth]

No, the fear is that, between government collusion and interference in the market making it impossible to afford housing, Srewgle is using that to re-introduce the concept of the "company town", where you live in company housing, visit the company doctor, shop at the company store and ultimately get paid in company scrip, good only at the company store.

Which is to say, a system of polite indentured servitude.

I understand the fear, but it may not turn out that way.
If government was involved it would for sure.

[angelatc]

I understand the fear, but it may not turn out that way.
If government was involved it would for sure.

As long as the government is involved in zoning laws, the government is involved. In the comments someone pointed out that a developer tried to buy some land to build housing but the government refused to rezone it, and instead sold it to linked-in. Bad bet, if you ask me.

[bunklocoempire]

Mentally deficient millennials have swallowed the lie. Look at these fools. This is a human hamster. Who wants to live in an ugly, minimalist 'storefront' box? This is supposed to be the promise of the future? End us now and get it over with.

[IMG]https://static01.********/images/2016/07/21/us/21CITYHOUSING1/21CITYHOUSING1-master768-v2.jpg[/IMG]

Shut yer soylent hole and report to your exercise wheel. What are ya trying to do, break the earth for the rest of us?
Sheesh!