And last month this was just a meme…
They have these in Japan as hotels, and they are expensive. It works pretty nicely for that, but renting them as a permanent dwelling is insane…
Techies are paying $700 a month for tiny bed 'pods' in downtown San Francisco
Submitted 1 year ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/rent-bed-pods-downtown-techies-18388110.php
Comments
name_NULL111653@pawb.social 1 year ago
j4k3@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It won’t be long before they are not allowed to quit their job or leave the area. Welcome to Neo-Digital-Feudalism. History rhymes.
zeekaran@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
The standard ones were like $35/night last I checked. Not exactly expensive. Housing (at least in 2017) was fairly cheap in Tokyo and the rest of Japan compared to most countries.
Endorkend@kbin.social 1 year ago
The bizarre thing about this is that the media and tech companies are pretending this is because these people WANT to live in pods.
Not because they can't afford anything, even when they have tech jobs that should mean they get paid well.
FoundTheVegan@kbin.social 1 year ago
It's the American dream for all your possessions to fit in a backpack so you can be the salaried unhoused.
TubeTalkerX@kbin.social 1 year ago
No possessions, only consume!
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 1 year ago
That's not how this article reads to me. It even mentions high rent is driving the demand.
Endorkend@kbin.social 1 year ago
I didn't say this article was portraying it as such.
But in general the media and companies do. This "pod people" and "20 people sharing a 2 bedroom" thing has been in the news on and off for a few years already.
chicken@lemmy.world 1 year ago
i thought it would be like those japanese sleep pods but these dont even have a door 😭
name_NULL111653@pawb.social 1 year ago
It’s time. This is only going to get worse. (And this is not a call to violence, but reform. Please don’t misunderstand, and hear me out - I use the words of those wiser than me, and wish to share what I have learned.)
We have tried to act by silent manipulation - a perfectly valid way of exercising our will. But we have failed. In attempting to exercise our will in a way synchronous to those more powerful than us, we have instead allowed them to build us into another herd morality - one of willing slavery. This can stand no longer. Violence against those weaker than you may be a sign of weakness, but using it as the last resort to escape those acting counter to your most basic needs may soon become the only way out.
We must act now. We must wait no longer, or soon there may be no alternative to violent revolt. I fear it may be too late. But in the struggle for the power to control your own life, any means required to exercise that will is justified. They are weak in will, and in their weakness, they resort to the illusion of strength that comes from squashing us under their feet.
They fight for themselves and their own will to power. I respect that - but they have made a fatal mistake, and shown their weakness by resorting to a show of force against us. It is this:
There are two ways to exercise your will over another: to annihilate them, and continue on as one force behind your will. Or to build them up, and change their life for the better - to make them a better, stronger person.
The former is what the aristocrats choose. It carries a great illusion of strength. But the latter is how we must fight - while they trample one another, we must strengthen each other. Though we disagree on how to exercise it, we share a common will: change. If we work together to accomplish that, rather than fight like they do, we can overcome their power easily.
Reshaping another’s will by empowering each other is far more potent than fighting each other. In doing so, as a being of will, you make them indebted to you. And that helps orient their will towards yours. And that is how you achieve true power - by starting a movement. One that can shape the very universe to your will.
I have not started a movement. But I see that this movement is in line with my will. So I will add my small power to it, and seek to add more. We have no name or banner. Or rather, we have too many to reconcile. That is good. Instead of fighting for whose details and name should be plastered on a useless surge of will, let’s all join under whatever banner we choose to fly (and I fly only my own just as many of you), and come together to spark the fire of action.
The revolution began long ago. Perhaps it has burned since the beginning of time, recurring forever, and will never truly end until the universe collapses and our eternal will is ended.
But perhaps in fighting, we can join something eternal. Something not reliant on faith or platonic idealism, but rather a tangible effect that repeats until time itself is extinguished.
I choose to join. I ask you to as well. Join us - join the force, with no name or banner, but a common goal - and live, through your will, forever.
Rooty@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You’ve been spamming this bullshit in several communities. Stop it, you’re embarrasing yourself.
name_NULL111653@pawb.social 1 year ago
I put it in places where I felt it would be appropriate and contribute to the ongoing conversation. I thought I was careful not to be pushy or offensive, or go off topic, but you have the right to disagree. I’ll make sure to carefully consider whether repeating my opinion in a different conversation with different people about the same topic is constructive. I’ll upvote your comment too, it’s a valid opinion. Sorry if you saw it multiple times or found my opinion on the topic offensive.
return2ozma@lemmy.world 1 year ago
All of this!
knobbysideup@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Eeesh. Just get a van and convert it. Park at work.
llama@midwest.social 1 year ago
DMV: “Sir your van cannot be registered using itself as the address”
stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Here’s a fun thought.
What happens to all these people living in sarcophagi (TIL that’s a real word) when another pandemic/lockdown happen? Do they just go into solitary confinement conditions worse than actual solitary confinement in terms of square footage?
Asking for a friend that happens to be everyone in New York who isn’t rich
NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social 1 year ago
I stayed in a capsule hotel in Tokyo once. It was awful.
FollyDolly@lemmy.world 1 year ago
700$ a month!? I mean if this is what it takes to keep more people from slipping through the cracks into homelessness I’m all for it, but fuck the whole system that got us to this point.
Cosmos7349@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Seems like the kind of places I lived while getting into tech in SF (maybe ~8 months total)… I have some pretty interesting stories from that time lol. But extra hilarious was years later seeing a dystopian article about one of the very places I had lived:
FatAdama@programming.dev 1 year ago
What could possibly go wrong? Such a terrible idea. I hope they have some safety measures in place to prevent sexual assault.
meliaesc@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Los Angeles bases its occupancy limits on the square footage of a unit, rather than the number of bedrooms:
- One to two people for every 70–119 square feet - Three people for every 120–169 square feet - Four people for every 170–119 square feet - 50 square feet for each additional person
Lycerius@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That website is a disaster. Endless pop up ads that play sound and constantly interrupt your reading. How does anyone use it?
odium@programming.dev 1 year ago
On Firefox mobile with u block origin, I get a total of 0 ads, pop ups, sounds, etc.
beefcat@lemmy.world 1 year ago
why would someone choose this over living literally anywhere else?
Cosmos7349@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Proximity/price and community. Anything in SF proper is going to be, at minimum, 2-3x more expensive. To get this kind of price, you’d need to commute from outside the city.
Re community, the people that live at this kind of place are generally grinding super hard in the tech industry. So trying to live with like-minded workaholics in the same stage of life.
Source: I have lived in SF and east bay, both in places like this, and renting an apt the normal way.
rikonium@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Of course the startup behind it is called “Brownstone”
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I guess $23 and some change daily compares favorably, cost wise, with just getting a hotel room. But me – I’ll take the hotel room, thanks.
iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Beats a studio in rural New Hampshire.
Spzi@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Like Matrix, but service is lacking and price is still early adopters. In the future, we might not need to leave our pods and get them for free.
eldain@feddit.nl 1 year ago
I like it. You can rent a parking spot in central Amsterdam for the same price, this is more value and utility for the money.
bestnerd@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I moved to sf 7 years ago for work. Let me tell you. This isn’t that insane. Some of my coworkers would share a one bedroom with 5 + people to save money. They can afford the rent in South Bay or east bay. They just want to save enough to put 1m down on a house as soon as possible or they are sending money back overseas or they own a house somewhere else and commute on weekends. I have a feeling those paying for these are making less than 200k a year and don’t want to commute via Caltrain or BART and will shower at a gym. But I could be wrong
For what it’s worth, Wife and I lived in a 2 bedroom literally on the beach for 4k a month and we did it so we weren’t miserable after work and our dogs could enjoy our lives when not working. We ended moving back to Colorado with a nice downpayment during Covid but still.
This will do well cause the mentality of just having a place to sleep is enough. However! I hope this is used by others and not just tech workers.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 year ago
It would depend on the homeless person as for who would use this. I feel like this is a place where it would be the last rung before falling into homelessness rather than the first rung to climb out.
subignition@kbin.social 1 year ago
I want a society where the homelessness is not a thing, and utilitarian basic shelter like this is the worst you can fail without being dangerous or insane
Hegar@kbin.social 1 year ago
I suspect there are several rungs between homelessness and renting an $800/m pod from a tech industry focused startup.
overzeetop@lemmy.world 1 year ago
If I was single and working 4-10s or 3-12s and wanted a way to just crash where I didn’t need a car or commute, and it would let me live the rest of the time out of the city, I’d probably do this. It reminds me a bit of the bunk houses of the early 20th century.
It would be a shitty long term existence for most but I can see its utility. Back when I was in college, a friend shared a 3BR with 5 other guys to make living near Julliard affordable. Note that I’m looking for space for the next generation of students I’m seeing tales of 8 people sharing 4 br flats in Edinburgh.
Azzu@lemm.ee 1 year ago
The techies rework really left the poor guys in shambles :(
mmababes@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Piecemakers3Dprints@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Have you seen the millions that live in worse conditions (in the US alone), despite empty housing dwarfing those numbers? Just saying: yes, this is bullshit, but I help shake the feeling that this is what comes from showing corporate America that we, as a people, don’t give enough fucks for the latter, so they can more easily get away with this… for even more profit.
AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They’ll keep getting worse, so long as we never raze Wall Street to the ground as we should.
Don’t worry though, this country could legalize and mandate productivity shock collars on everyone with less than a million in net worth, and we wouldn’t do shit.
We don’t want to disturb the quarterly earnings of our glorious job creators or our beloved 🌈economy, after all. They’ll start pissing prosperity on us any day now! ZAP
name_NULL111653@pawb.social 1 year ago
It’s time. We have tried to act by silent manipulation - a perfectly valid way of exercising our will. But we have failed. In attempting to exercise our will in a way synchronous to those more powerful than us, we have instead allowed them to build us into another herd morality - one of willing slavery. This can stand no longer. Violence against those weaker than you may be a sign of weakness, but using it as the last resort to escape those acting counter to your most basic needs may soon become the only way out.
We must act now. We must wait no longer, or soon there may be no alternative to violent revolt. I fear it may be too late. But in the struggle for the power to control your own life, any means required to exercise that will is justified. They are weak in will, and in their weakness, they resort to the illusion of strength that comes from squashing us under their feet.
They fight for themselves and their own will to power. I respect that - but they have made a fatal mistake, and shown their weakness by resorting to a show of force against us. It is this:
There are two ways to exercise your will over another: to annihilate them, and continue on as one force behind your will. Or to build them up, and change their life for the better - to make them a better, stronger person.
The former is what the aristocrats choose. It carries a great illusion of strength. But the latter is how we must fight - while they trample one another, we must strengthen each other. Though we disagree on how to exercise it, we share a common will: change. If we work together to accomplish that, rather than fight like they do, we can overcome their power easily.
Reshaping another’s will by empowering each other is far more potent than fighting each other. In doing so, as a being of will, you make them indebted to you. And that helps orient their will towards yours. And that is how you achieve true power - by starting a movement. One that can shape the very universe to your will.
I have not started a movement. But I see that this movement is in line with my will. So I will add my small power to it, and seek to add more. We have no name or banner. Or rather, we have too many to reconcile. That is good. Instead of fighting for whose details and name should be plastered on a useless surge of will, let’s all join under whatever banner we choose to fly (and I fly only my own just as many of you), and come together to spark the fire of action.
The revolution began long ago. Perhaps it has burned since the beginning of time, recurring forever, and will never truly end until the universe collapses and our eternal will is ended.
But perhaps in fighting, we can join something eternal. Something not reliant on faith or platonic idealism, but rather a tangible effect that repeats until time itself is extinguished.
I choose to join. I ask you to as well. Join us - join the force, with no name or banner, but a common goal - and life, through your will, forever.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I mean, that’s a ridiculous amount of space compared to when I was out to sea with the Navy…
It sounds like it’s filled with short term renters trying to get startups going. They need a place to shower and sleep while going to a lot of meetings in SF.
I don’t see an issue with that.
Now, if people were signing up to live there for a year at a time while working a full time job…
Yeah. That’s dystopian as fuck
Fredselfish@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The amount of comments defending this make me sick. No one working full time our hell part time should live in those conditions.
mmababes@lemmy.world 1 year ago
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 1 year ago
It’s a month to month contract. That seems to back your idea of startups.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 year ago
This seems slightly more private than dorm room or bunk conditions, and we are ok having people live in those kinds of conditions.
It also seems better than being homeless.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’m shocked that the enhanced profitability for realestate “investors” doesn’t make you feel good about this!
/s