this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Techies are paying $700 a month for tiny bed ‘pods’ in downtown San Francisco::px-captcha

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[–] 01011@monero.town 95 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

It's funny to me how many of the things we were told communism would bring about are now being experienced under the current economic system.

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[–] ViewSonik@lemmy.world 39 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The USA is better than this. We should not be forcing people to live in tiny little dorms to work in our tech hubs due to housing costs. Build more apartments, fund it through corporate taxes and actually make San Francisco affordable for our brightest tech workers.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 41 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Tech workers shouldn't be working from an onsite location unless they're touching hardware...there shouldn't be a central location they're all at anyways.

[–] anti_antidote@lemmy.zip 11 points 11 months ago

I don't know about shouldn't. I think that there should always be the option to work remotely, but I much prefer to work in an office where I can have a separate mental space from home and be able to build meaningful relationships with my coworkers.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I would love to see incentives to have people work from home in towns that need the population. I think a lot of people would like to live somewhere more rural if they didn't have to commute... but we would need to fix public transportation if we did that. Otherwise we're just adding more cars and miles.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

I live rural, and wfh and have been for nearly a decade now. My cars get way less use than when I had to go into the office. Rural doesn't mean more traveling and cars if you're working from home.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I can’t see the locals in such places taking kindly to any formal program to move people there. We can say “these areas need population” but they will say “it’s driving up rents and they’re a bunch of city slicking tech bros and we hate them.”

The areas that truly, undeniably need population are so bombed-out that no one with any other options will live there.

[–] ViewSonik@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago
[–] grahamja@reddthat.com 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it be incredible if smaller tech companies spread out a bit? There are plenty of small towns in America that could use any form of industry to keep them alive.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

There aren’t many skilled workers in those areas though, and you’d need a lot of money to convince people to move to a less desirable area just for you.

[–] BURN@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Not everyone works well remote. I much prefer a hybrid model and honestly wouldn’t even consider working somewhere that’s 100% WFH. All that WFH does for me is decrease how much work I get done and make every waking moment in my home feel like work because I live in a 1 bedroom apartment.

[–] ThePizzaTimeBandit@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Okay, then be somebody that goes in office?

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[–] 01011@monero.town 26 points 11 months ago (3 children)

History suggests that the USA really isn't better than this. If you ignore the post WWII boom period, workers being treated terribly is the norm.

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[–] miketunes_@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] bstix@feddit.dk 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't dislike the idea of people living in dormitories, but with a price of $700 it seems that should have a full height room.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Can't even stand up to get dressed in one of these

[–] TKRyer@sh.itjust.works 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)

This is just a shittier capsule hotel like they have in Japan. At least there they don’t charge you an arm and a leg for it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel

[–] anubis119@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wikipedia article puts the pricing in Japan between 18 to 36 USD per night. That's a range between 540 to 1080 USD per month. That makes San Francisco pricing average.

[–] TKRyer@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

Ooh good call! I was misremembering the price!

[–] serratur@lemmy.wtf 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

They have much better standard, they have a door you can close, not just some curtains, the SF one is like a hostel.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Some have curtains in Japan as well.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Can't they work remotely? Why live in downtown SF? Seems like a waste of money.

These look little more luxurious than the low-income housing in Beijing.

[–] bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml 20 points 11 months ago

Return to work is all about keeping money in the financial district.

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago

Coffin Motels.

The term was coined in Neuromancer I believe.

[–] Porka_911@sopuli.xyz 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Rather a converted van, cheaper and serves two purposes as can guarantee that $700 does not include parking.

[–] CandleTiger@programming.dev 22 points 11 months ago

Presumably part of the draw for living in downtown San Francisco is you don’t need to pay for the upkeep and feeding of a car

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah but it avoids the hassle of having your home impounded for being illegally parked.

[–] Frylock@sh.itjust.works 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I swear I remember a location like this in one of the newer Deus Ex games, which take place in a cyberpunk ish dystopia

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Adam Jensen, the game's protagonist, searches for a computer hacker named Van Brugen and finds him hiding out in a place called Alice Pods in Hengsha, which is essentially a "hotel" composed of coffin-like closable pods with beds in them. Each guest rents a pod and can make use of the on-site facilities. It was communal living on a shoestring budget (or in Van Brugen's case, hiding from the Pharmaceutical Megacorp trying to assassinate you).

The funny part is that the fictional Alice Pods actually had more amenities than this real-life pod hotel does. They had washers and dryer units, private shower stalls and toilets, and even late-night food trucks in the common area serving up food.

A cyberpunk dystopia actually wasn't dystopian enough to match reality.

[–] boatsnhos931@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Oh hellll to the no.. somebody is making a fucking killing on these idiots though!!

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

$550 is the most I ever paid for a room there, but that was in 2000. My dad loves to talk about his $12 apartment on Sanchez back in 1965.

[–] xodoh74984@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago