Ugh. Bougie homeless. Just sleep in your car like normal people. π /s
I do want sleep pods at airports.
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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Shower pod at the Paris airport was the best layover I've ever had. You pay in 30 minute increments but so nice to get refreshed when you're traveling across the Atlantic.
Wow, 30min is really generous.
I bet that was really nice. π As someone who takes red eyes, showering when I get there would be preferred.
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San Franciscan here. What is βcar?β
A mobile home. Donβt worry youβll be able to rent one from Uber for the night soon enough.
Well in San Francisco, a car is something that a robot learns how to navigate around the city streets.
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"A big hit" with people who desperately need accommodation that won't bankrupt them.
Yeah i love how every negative was couched within a sentence mentioning how popular and great these pieces of shit are
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ugh, this is dysphorian THIS IS NOT FUCKING NORMAL. THIS IS LATE STAGE CAPITALISM
Late stage capitalism? They were doing shit like this in the 1800s. It IS capitalism.
Like, seriously. Itβs always been a thing.
In the 1800s, you could rent a space on a rope overnight so that you could drape yourself over it and have a place to sleep that night that wasnβt on the freezing, urine-soaked ground.
This has long been an issue.
Holy balls. That was a wild read.
revolution time!
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No. This is actually perfectly normal and has been throughout history.
This is a flophouse/hostel/barracks by another name. The concept of these largely predate (modern) capitalism and they are still a very popular model in a lot of high population density cities.
When I was younger, I loved when stuff like this was available because I tend to not spend a lot of time in my hotel when I am on holiday. As I've gotten older I have decided it is more important to have a place to stretch out and my own private bathroom but... it was really nice back in the day.
The relative cost and code violations... also just speak to the relative cost of housing. Which is "normal" capitalism.
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A pod for sleeping at home: π A pod for sleeping in a hotel: π A pod to rent for cheap on vacation: π
A pod is your fucking home: ππππππππππ
I imagine this is more like the Japanese coffin hotels. They are for salary men that work too late to take the trains home.
In this case, probably for people who don't want to do the 1-1.5hr each way to their "just affordable enough" commutter home every day. I doubt these are many people's long term permanent address.
$700/mo is excessive though.
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I remember reading about, "pod hotels" in Akiharbara, "Electric Town", Japan in the late 90s or early 2000s. I recall them being marketed as a cheap way to see the neighborhood. Even back then, Akiharbara was the global epicenter of anime/manga, retro gaming, arcades, computer stores and repair shops.
Glad to see the concept has now evolved to, "dystopian hell" some 20 years later.
yeah, to be clear: capsule hotels in japan are not meant to be long term stays, they're for busy business people that need a quick place to sleep for ONE night because they worked till late at night and missed the last train, or similar situations like that. Nobody actually lives in a capsule hotel
EDIT: to clarify, some people may live in a capsule hotel, but they're not designed for long-term living
There have to be people living in capsule hotels in Japan. There are people in Japan living in computer cafes, where the lights are on 24/7. Japan isn't all sunshine and roses. Tons of people barely hanging on and these cheap ass places let them have at least some sort of dignity. If you work any job in Japan, odds are you'll have a roof over your head. Same can't be said in the US, where many homeless people have jobs and can't afford to be protected from the elements.
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It's really sad that someone had the thought process of, "I bet we can convince people to live in these fucking things". An despite this small bump in the road, it is seemingly working.
It's disgusting how many people will leverage housing costs (especially in San Francisco) against their fellow (hu)man.
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Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to see modern SRO-style buildings, noise proofed, with small individual bathrooms and kitchenettes. That sort of development would be a godsend to the housing shortage, perfect for young people, supercommuters, and recent transplants, as well as for stopgap homeless prevention.
This isn't that. This is horrible.
Yeah young people(students) fresh out on their own and have nothing yet trying to make ends meet donβt have standards yet when they first get out into the world and once they run into responsibilities they find out fast this type of living really isnβt living. Itβs actually super limited. Until then: extorters are going to extort.
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Centered in the square carpet of green plastic turf, a Japanese teenager sat behind a C-shaped console, reading a textbook. The white fiberglass coffins were racked in a framework of industrial scaffolding. Six tiers of coffins, ten coffins on a side. Case nodded in the boy's direction and limped across the plastic grass to the nearest ladder. The compound was roofed with cheap laminated matting that rattled in a strong wind and leaked when it rained, but the coffins were reasonably difficult to open without a key.
The expansion-grate catwalk vibrated with his weight as he edged his way along the third tier to Number 92. The coffins were three meters long, the oval hatches a meter wide and just under a meter and a half tall.
-- William Gibson, Neuromancer
Cyberpunk was supposed to be a dystopian vision.
Most dystopian books are now used as a manual for some politicians and rich a**holes.
Ready Player One was a dystopia and Zuck was so enamored it became required reading for building the "Metaverse".
Billions of dollars can't buy you the ability to sense irony I guess.
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Gotta love that if you have enough money you can just do the thing you want to do, and if it's illegal the government will simply ask you nicely to fix it later, maybe even fine you an amount of money that's at least on order of magnitude lower than the profits you made from it.
I agree there's a problem with corporations and wealthy people treating fines as a mere cost of doing business, but in situations where there was neither malicious intent nor actual harm, it's problematic to create a legal minefield with harsh penalties. The goal of regulation should be to gain compliance rather than punish trivial noncompliance. Of course one might argue that something that does no harm ought not be forbidden at all.
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Crush this trend, now.
This is the dumbest thing I've seen in a while
As a person who worked at one of these cool tech companies that provided food for breakfast lunch and dinner and snacks 24/7, I found I was only using my apartment to sleep. Most of the offices of other amenities such as a gym, and all the tech workers would go out for happy hours. If I was single this would be a very valid option. Some people don't plan to spend time in their apartments.
I never understood that whole tech/startup culture. I would absolutely hate for my entire life to be my job. And from the outside all these "cool" perks are very clearly designed to get you to spend as much time working as possible. No thanks.
I worked normally hour, I just didn't need a full apartment. You going to start your work day there's breakfast you work there's lunch you work until 5:00 and then you go to the gym and then you go back for dinner when you do something cool in the city. I actually have really fond memories of that period.
I'm glad it worked out for you. And I also know that my idea of it all can't possibly apply to every single company that was or is a part of that whole culture.
I just find myself sceptical of it all since I much prefer to have my own time, and my own space as separate from work and the people I work with. And perks like that just very clearly seem designed to get me to spend as much time at work as possible.
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Having worked at, and co-founded, multiple startups over a period of 28 years: Sure. But why are you choosing that?
The reality is that the moment I started standing up to employers or investors and expecting decent standards, they folded and I was able to have a good work-life balance and get paid market rates and still get to work on cool startups and get shares.
These companies prey on most people never thinking to negotiate (and having been on the other side of the table, and tried to be decent: most people never negotiate, even though we almost always have space to do so)
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$700 / 30 = $23.33 a day to sleep in a wood box... brilliant!
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βBecame a big hit with tech workersβ lmao thatβs fucking stupid. Thereβs just nowhere to live thatβs remotely reasonably priced in SF. This is like one of the only choices if you really donβt want a roommate.
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Who had William Gibson's coffins on their Cyberpunk Bingo?
Spoiler: They appeared in Japan in the late 80s in hotels, rented a day at a time.
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They write "tech workers" but it's pronounced "tech slaves"
Tech companies that offer places to sleep, eat and play at work, only do so so they can keep you working as long as a possible. If you never leave the office they make boatloads of money and make yourself a free Eggo waffle. And if you try to work from home so you can live in a city you can actually afford, they make come into the office so itβs impossible. Not because you arenβt doing good work at home, but because you canβt wonβt 24/7 at home.
As someone who's not American and had a couple of job opportunities to move to San Francisco, I'm glad not to have done it.
What kind of hellhole is that city? I had an impression it was extremely expensive but also very wealthy. The more I hear the worse it seems.
I like the city but it's not for everyone. I definitely wouldn't call it a hellhole.
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$700 a month?!
Skipping permits is a way of life in SF. (I had work conversations about buying older gromex so the dates were before you purchased in case am inspector noticed. Inspectors were prohibited from noticing anything they were not specifically there for.)
I wondered at the specific permit they missed.
without a permit changing the building from a bank to a living space and illegally converting a toilet into a shower.
That seems important to do properly.
You get more space and amenities in prison. And much cheaper.
People don't want to live in this pods for the most part. The problem is NIMBYs in San Francisco constantly block new housing from being built. This results in insane housing rental prices for workers. Because housing prices are so insane, it makes $700 sleeping pods look like a steal.
The issue is the lack of housing, NIMBYs, and the local government.
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