Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...
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To Ease Affordable Housing Crunch, Google Will Buy Modular Homes
The Mountain View, Calif., tech giant is buying 300 apartment units from a modular-home startup.
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All of Silicon Valley operates like the fucking Palace of Versailles at this point, it's not like they're shifting the balance very far with this move.
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I hear that Foxconn wants to build a factory in Wisconsin, and if I recall correctly, Foxconn is the company that has suicide-prevention nets installed on their buildings because the workers try to kill themselves.
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@ben_lubar said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
and if I recall correctly, Foxconn is the company that has suicide-prevention nets installed on their buildings because the workers try to kill themselves.
That was in China, and
ABC News[6] and The Economist[7] both reported that the suicide rate of Foxconn employees was actually lower than the country's overall suicide rate.
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@PJH they should install nets on all of China, then.
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@PJH said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
That was in China, and
ABC News[6] and The Economist[7] both reported that the suicide rate of Foxconn employees was actually lower than the country's overall suicide rate.
The nets are working well then
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Actually, this seems like an interesting case of private actors trying to find solutions where the government has been stymieing progress. As I mentioned elsewhere, see the YIMBY movement:
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@ben_lubar said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
@PJH they should install nets on all of China, then.
Chinese are cheaper than nets, so...
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Or they could move their office just a little bit away.
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@anonymous234 said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
Or they could move their office just a little bit away.
Move their office?
Once the 1,100,000-square-foot (100,000 m2) Bay View addition went online in 2015, the Googleplex became the largest collection of Google buildings with 3,100,000 square feet (290,000 m2) of space.
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@boomzilla I assume YIMBY stands for "Yes, In My Back Yard"?
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@Khudzlin Yes.
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@Khudzlin said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
@boomzilla I assume YIMBY stands for "Yes, In My Back Yard"?
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In June 2013, Google had 11,330 employees in Mountain View. 300 apartments, at a cost of $100,00 each, doesn't seem like much of a solution.
Ultimately, the real problem is all of these companies moving into the same area and hiring tens of thousands of employees, 50-60% of whom aren't really even needed, in an area that is not equipped to handle that many people.
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@El_Heffe said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
Ultimately, the real problem is all of these companies moving into the same area and hiring tens of thousands of employees, 50-60% of whom aren't really even needed, in an area that is not equipped to handle that many people.
There are two “simple” solutions:
- Relocate at least some of those employees elsewhere. There's gotta be some municipality elsewhere who would love the chance to support that sort of thing.
- Build up local infrastructure to the point where it can support that many people working in that area.
The first requires companies' managements to think differently. The second requires a lot of time and money. They're not exclusive options, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if neither happened because everyone will just keep on going doing the same old shit that was causing problems before.
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@El_Heffe said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
In June 2013, Google had 11,330 employees in Mountain View. 300 apartments, at a cost of $100,00 each, doesn't seem like much of a solution.
Ugh...this just seems like cynicism for cynicism's sake. Should no one do anything because they can't solve a significant part of the problem with any particular action?
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@dkf said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
Build up local infrastructure to the point where it can support that many people working in that area.
Which is what San Francisco (and environs) should have been doing for the last 20 years. They didn't. Now it's almost at a crisis point.
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@blakeyrat What, you expect them to behave in a rational, sane manner?
They don't call it "the land of fruits and nuts" for nothing...
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@blakeyrat said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
Which is what San Francisco (and environs) should have been doing for the last 20 years. They didn't. Now it's almost at a crisis point.
Exactly. Part of the problem is that many of the municipalities in the area are too small and operate on a strict beggar-my-neighbors policy, making big infrastructure stupidly difficult to do. The only thing they seem to agree on is making 101 wider, and that doesn't really solve anything, not any more.
So yeah, it really looks like it's gone into stratospheric bubble mode, with higher prices fuelling ever higher prices and more stupid “investment”, and implosion is coming and will probably be quite vicious. Like London but with even more stupid (London actually manages to make infrastructure; just horrendously over budget).
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@blakeyrat said in Google begins beta testing "feudalism"...:
Now it's almost at a crisis point.
Nah. We passed that a while ago.
I owe my soul to the company store! 
San Francisco YIMBY
Googleplex - Wikipedia
