[T]he initial plans are strikingly devoid of the utopian aspirations and showmanship.... In Texas, as soon as a community has 201 residents, it can petition to incorporate as a town. The standard takeaway from the history of company towns is that the best way to help workers is to pay them. When Disney announced plans last year to build housing on company land in Orlando, Fla., one of its largest unions blasted the idea as a poor substitute for better pay.
Do you know how much money you need to make to buy a house or get a nice apartment in Austin? But Applebaum does know:
In markets where construction isn’t keeping pace with demand — a category that currently includes much of the United States — giving some workers more money just makes it harder for everyone else to find a place to live. Disney workers don’t just need more money. They also need more housing.
So why not praise Musk if he's building the needed housing? Applebaum is instead using Musk's building project as evidence that the political leaders of Austin are guilty of "municipal malpractice." "Workers shouldn’t have to live in company towns."
By the way, have you noticed Trump's plan to build 10 cities? That would deploy power from within government. Will Applebaum celebrate this idea? Just testing. Spare me the usual sarcasm about double standards and partisanship. Let's assume we could pressure Applebaum to be consistent. If political leaders commit malpractice by failing to cause ample housing to exist, is Trump's idea worthy?
From that last link (to Business Insider):
These federally-chartered purported utopias, dubbed "Freedom Cities," would feature "vertical takeoff-and-landing vehicles," manufacturing hubs, "baby bonuses," and plentiful single-family housing, delivering a "quantum leap for America's standard of living."
That's certainly not — to use Applebaum's phrase — "strikingly devoid of the utopian aspirations and showmanship."
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The basic problem is that, in much of the U.S., the supply of housing is not allowed to meet the demand. California currently has something like a third of all the homeless people in the U.S. One reason for this is that governmental agencies in California make it hard to impossible to build housing units. Let markets function and you wouldn't have a homelessness problem. For that matter, you wouldn't have a problem with soaring health care costs.
Applebaum would be fine with it if the government had built the place, the residents received monthly UBI checks deposited directly to their government-owned banks, resided in social housing flats, and rode only electric buses to and from the government jobs they might or might not choose to work at.
Otherwise, a town of People Not Our Kind is a pea under the social mattress.
The biggest problem with Musk building a company town, given his track record, is how much better living there would be compared to living in Austin itself, the most Leftwing city in Texas.
Political leaders don't fail to cause ample housing to exist they fail to permit ample housing to exist.
Hint to Musk:
Build lots of gravel and mountain bike trails.
and they will come...
How is housing "unaffordable"? The price wouldn't be high if the product didn't sell, and the left has done every thing it can to obstruct construction, tax the products out of existence, make lumber available only at exorbitant prices due to EPA over-regulation, denigrate the workers at construction jobs as racist, etc. You want affordable housing? Get government out of the homelessness industry.
Nice takes Ann. Why I have followed for 20 years.
Because he is Elon Musk and because that's the narrative.
Musk is guilty of not conforming to the orthodoxy; That's why. I like Musk's lifelong commitment to experimentation. This is a worthwhile one and I hope he follows through. There is something quaint and homey about creating a hometown environment, and doing it on this theme beats some property developer doing it with no interest in its cultural outcome. Good for Musk. And Bastrop county is on the east side of Austin, towards Houston. It's a good choice, pretty country. Smithville is in that county, which is a town that has a very strong 1950's flavor to it, strong enough to where they shoot movies there (Tree of Life, Hope Floats).
Company towns have a deservedly poor reputation. On the other hand, I've never heard of a company town being dynamited into oblivion like they've had to do with many public housing projects.
Now that Musk has left the democrat reservation..
Is there ANY THING he could do, that wouldn't be criticized? Any Thing? Any Thing, at all??
What if, instead of "building homes for the workers he's bringing in" ... Musk rents them the homes.
What if he rents them the homes and also owns the company stores in town where they buy groceries.
What if he rents them the homes, owns the grocery stores and also owns the clothing stores in town and won't allow any outside clothing stores in.
What if he rents them the homes, owns the grocery and clothing stores and also conditions employment on them renting the homes and using those stores?
What if he builds a school? And the teachers all work for Musk. And he sets the curriculum. And you have to send your kids to school there if you work for Elon Musk?
What if, in exchange for money, Musk just paid the rent, groceries and clothing and education for his workers?
Pretty close to slavery, no? I guess people can consent to slavery ... right?
The standard takeaway from the history of company towns is that the best way to help workers is to pay them.
Odd that the author doesn't then investigate to see what the Boring Company actually pays - is it really too low? A quick search suggests that the lowest starting salary is $34K per year and the average is $59k, or $28.36 per hour. Engineers make between $70k and $120k. These are right in line with engineer salaries in Austin (which one should expect, market forces and the like).
Average price for a single-family home in Austin is somewhere between $550k and $677k, depending on the source (and of course, that is the average - there will be homes, condos, etc. for less). Doesn't seem particularly out of line, particularly for two-income households. In any event, higher housing costs do not make Boring more profitable, so not Musk's problem, yet he appears to be the only one moving towards a solution.
Company town's bad reputation stemmed primarily from their being built remote from other locations, so the employees who lived there had to buy food, gas, clothing, and the like from company stores at effectively monopoly prices. Also, with no other housing nearby, the company could do shoddy construction work with no recourse. Not sure a subdivision in Austin Texas will fit that criteria.
Journalists don't do much thinking before publishing these days.
I see the boring company as one of Musk’s most far-sighted projects. Maybe it’s modest, not flashy, but he’s perfecting the the techniques to build a colony in Mars.
Government regulation is the biggest obstacle to affordable housing, so I have little faith that government programs can make things better. But if Musk builds good houses affordably, maybe that model can be copied by other developers.
Dogma wrote: "One reason for this is that governmental agencies in California make it hard to impossible to build housing units."
A significant source of revenue for state governments is property taxes. California raises $60 billion annually in property taxes.
Property taxes rise when housing prices and values rise.
Housing values rise when the supply is cut off but the demand is kept artificially high (say, by an influx of citizens from elsewhere into your communities ... let's say Mexico).
Are you starting to see the problem here?
The problem is taxes. The incentives are to create homelessness and illegal immigration. Otherwise, government employee salaries and pensions are reduced due to lack of taxes.
We have incentivized our governments to hurt us.
Also, the town is apparently to be built in Pflugerville Texas, about 35 miles outside of Austin. Average home price in Pflugerville is $369.5k, so very much affordable on the wages Boring pays.
They will continue to beat Elon Musk until his morale improves. Let me know how that works out.
California currently has something like a third of all the homeless people in the U.S. One reason for this is that governmental agencies in California make it hard to impossible to build housing units.
A bigger reason is that everybody else's homeless move to California for the weather and generous benefits.
Not all company towns had a bad reputation, though. The ones that ran on the 'company store' model did, deservedly because they guaranteed permanent indenture. But they are not the exemplar - they're just the juicy bad example we're being warned about.
There were plenty of company towns that served their purpose nobly, providing a sense of community in the wilderness and bringing basic human services to their workers, education and health care for the kids, in exchange for worker retention. McIlhenny, the makers of Tabasco sauce, ran one in the Louisiana bayous for years and they're still pretty proud of it today. Of course that was back when local governments were too poor to provide them.
Seriously? Because he took away their twitter censorship toy. That's it.
"Let markets function and you wouldn't have a homelessness problem. For that matter, you wouldn't have a problem with soaring health care costs.
I wonder how you imagine that could happen.
"Company town's bad reputation stemmed primarily from their being built remote from other locations, so the employees who lived there had to buy food, gas, clothing, and the like from company stores at effectively monopoly prices. Also, with no other housing nearby, the company could do shoddy construction work with no recourse."
Do you think Musk's desired "company town" would deviate from the above in any significant manner?
If it's being built in Bastrop County, it's not being built in Pflugerville. Also, Pflugerville is in a pretty advanced stage of residential and commercial development right now, anyway. And it's near where Musk has sited some of his other ventures - in addition to Samsung putting in an $18 billion chip plant there, or so I've read. Farmland all around there is going for crazy prices right now, all the way past Taylor.
Musk has done more for mankind than anyone who writes critically about him...
I see the Boring Company as one of Musk’s most far-sighted projects. Maybe it’s modest, not flashy, but he’s perfecting the techniques to build a colony in Mars.
Agreed. And it's a good method of upgrading infrastructure. In Austin, the part of the Interstate that serves traffic through the city is up on stilts, essentially, while another part runs between the stilts and serves traffic onto and off of the Interstate. How much better to put the whole thing in levels far below other stuff. Or put subway trains in the existing government "right of way" without having to take commercial taxable land out of production under the politically unpopular power of eminent domain? SHORT RUN subway tunnels are a much better application (in my opinion) for tunnels than Musk's much-hyped superspeed hyper loop trains. And let's not forget that tunnel base communities and home provide residents protection -- whether protection from cosmic rays in a Martian community of the 2040s or from German Buzzbombs in the London community circa 1940.
Robert Cook said...
"Let markets function and you wouldn't have a homelessness problem. For that matter, you wouldn't have a problem with soaring health care costs.
I wonder how you imagine that could happen.
Cook is stumped at any alternative to Socialism. The Hoover Dam was built by workers who lived in a company town and they received medical care from the first HMO.
"why does Applebaum want to kick him around"
Why, oh, why? It's a mystery.
I live in a former company town. It was built to house smelter workers in 1912 and finally sold off in the 1950's after the smelter closed. It is an awesome town. Construction and design standards were extremely high and it is still the most desirable town to live in in the area. Much nicer than the non-company towns nearby. Of course, the man who built the town was (when accounting for the value of gold and copper he owned underground) probably the richest man in the world at the time. He was also widely despised, much like Musk. Though by all accounts, he really was a shitty person. He built a great town though.
This was his mansion in NYC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Clark_House
The book Empty Mansions was about his daughter Huguette Clark and I highly reccomend it.
About the company towns holding rent, groceries, etc as a monopoly.... Cookie asked;
"Do you think Musk's desired "company town" would deviate from the above in any significant manner?"
Yes, yes I do, Cookie. There's a brand new thing called the automobile. Maybe you've heard of it. If anyone tried the monopoly model today the car would negate the control.... unless the company town is a few hundred miles in diameter.
Company towns had a bad reputation in the 19th century, along with the company store. Though in this case I suspect Applebsum is upset that Musk might actually build afgordable housing without substantial graft going to "community activists" and the like local lampreys.
A large army base is a company town of sorts. I've been to Fort Bragg. It was pretty nice.
Parts of Fayetteville less so.
Musk is a designated villain, every reference to him has to either ridicule and demean him or make him out to be a threat. Remember "Spy" magazine 30 years ago? For some reason, every issue had to contain a jibe or jape about Abe Rosenthal, Bret Easton Ellis, and ... Donald Trump. That seems to have provided a template for today's media.
Musk is doing his bit to provide affordable housing. If he's smart, though, he won't make it a company town, but will encourage other businesses in the area and sell to their workers as well, and not be seen as controlling or running the town. No point in his making himself any more of a target than he already is. What the "Times" ought to be doing is trying to save older cities. That would involve taking a hard look at policies and conditions in cities like NYC, not poking designated villain/clown Musk.
Robert Cook @ 11:04: "Do you think Musk's desired "company town" would deviate from the above in any significant manner?" Yes. The workers I presume he wishes to attract would have both skills and mobility. Therefore, the living situation would have to be as good or better than other available alternatives.
A mining town near where I grew up is just full of "Sears houses" that were built in the early 1900s for the miners as company housing. The town itself was not fully a company town, as most of it was just an ordinary town. The mines closed in the late 1950s as I recall, and the Sears houses, well built at the time, are generally sold at a premium.
Joe Smith: "Musk has done more for mankind than anyone who writes critically about him..."
And that's why our resident leftists like Cookie, LLR-democratical Chuck, readering and Dumb Lefty Mark are gunning for him.
Jaore wrote: "If anyone tried the monopoly model today the car would negate the control."
You forgot that Elon Musk's cars drive themselves. To places that ONLY Elon Musk says they can drive.
I wonder how you imagine that could happen.
I can imagine it. Can you, Cook? There is a wealth of fully-developed economic models that support the proposition that healthcare, for example, would function far better if government would get out of the healthcare and insurance businesses entirely and leave these matters to the markets. These models cover preexisting conditions, basic health services for the poor, and consumer choice. The problem is that the lefties just will not stop thumbing the scales and mandating coverage requirements. CMS is, far and away, the single biggest contributor to rocketing costs.
Housing solutions, if left to the market, are far simpler to execute than healthcare. But leftie gub'ment interference will not let the markets work.
Socialist responses to problems are inevitably counterproductive. But lefties do love to pull the levers of power. That is the limit of their imagination.
- Krumhorn
Bill Zhang: "You forgot that Elon Musk's cars drive themselves. To places that ONLY Elon Musk says they can drive."
Careful Bill. The lefties/LLR-democraticals will think you are serious and believe you.
And then they'll claim the russians are involved!
During WWII company towns were built in Texas and I lived in two different ones. There was no company store in either one. I was a child so I have no idea what the rent was, but it must have been very reasonable.
The one we lived in in Odessa, TX was very nice and was across the street from the county part, a very nice place to live. It was a nice community to live in for children and their parents. After the war many were allowed to buy their homes at a very good price. My parents didn't as we had moved on and didn't live there anymore.
BIII Zhang 9:58 said
"Pretty close to slavery, no? I guess people can consent to slavery ... right?"
You left out the kidnapped/forceably removed from your home, transported to somewhere else and prevented from leaving....right?
Musk has a sister, I believe, that lives in Serenbee a “new town” enviro development south of Atlanta. Perhaps taking a cue from this
"Socialist responses to problems are inevitably counterproductive."
Only if you're trying to solve problems. Socialists aren't. For them, problems are excuses to force people to do things they wouldn't choose to do on their own.
Call it Boring. Althouse likes Boring.
See Normal, Il.
California is
1) home to a third of the homeless in the U.S.
2) subject to frequent mandatory water rationing
3) loaded with regulatory constraints at all levels regarding residential construction
4) land of the most draconian state mandates on existing cities, to build more affordable housing
5) effectively a sanctuary state for illegal aliens
6) principal manager of "private" power company PG&E (via PUC, CalOSHA, CARB, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, CalEPA, etc, etc.) which has the worst record in the country for fire safety
Etc, etc, ad nauseum.
To live here, and listen to government with a straight face, requires the MOST adaptable style of cognitive dissonance imaginable.
So, it looks like 'Snailbrook' already has made it onto Google Maps. It's just outside of Bastrop, which is a nice little town that has its own Buccee's (very unusual for a small town with no interstate), and it's right near the Colorado River. I think it's going to be a pretty nice place! Bastrop to the left, about 7 miles away; Austin to the right, only 20 miles west. The new Austin Tesla Giga-factory site is only about 15 miles away. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
There was a company tow in Wisconsin.
It was called Kohler.
My grandparents had to make an offer on a home in to the Kohler Co.
Every offer had to be approved by the BOD.
My grandparents offer was accepted for less than asking.
$400 for a small 3 bedroom home (all brick).
It helped that my grandfather was Mr Kohler’s right hand man.
I don’t know the process when my parents bought their home in Kohler.
It was a great community to grow up in.
(Especially great because we could visit grandma every day just by riding our bikes to her house about 10 blocks away.
She made the best chocolate chip cookies!)
For those who have been there, The American Club was where we went bowling!
Very different today!
In the DC, MD, VA area there's builder named Dan Ryan. His boast is that no one ever lost money on a Dan Ryan house. When he builds houses in a development he builds just that, a strong, well constructed house. He doesn't add in any flashy come-ons, he builds a house. The left hates him because he doesn't do ESG, DEI, bike trails, special jobs set aside for minorities, special rates for minorities buying houses. He gets the houses built to sell at median prices and sells them, that's it. And no one loses money on it, including him. That is the kind of builder Elon Musk needs - and San Francisco.
Mason G: "Only if you're trying to solve problems. Socialists aren't. For them, problems are excuses to force people to do things they wouldn't choose to do on their own."
Right up until the point the commie leaders decide to deliver a fi al "solution" to the "problem" by filling the mass graves.
Its always "Year 0" for Cookie.
It's just outside of Bastrop, which is a nice little town that has its own Buccee's (very unusual for a small town with no interstate), and it's right near the Colorado River.
According to Wikipedia, Buc-ee’s is known for having Tesla Superchargers. A coincidence? Probably not when Musk is involved.
"For those who have been there, The American Club was where we went bowling! Very different today!"
When I worked for Kohler, the American Club was still a bar/bowling alley/workers dorm. I lived there for a little while, waiting for an apartment to come open. Now the place is a world-class hotel, resort, restaurant(s). Herb Kohler had vision, and repurposed the old immigrant housing. The local barflies were miffed at the loss of a nice watering hole.
The first African-American company town.
@ Big Mike, Buc-ee's is known for having practically everything, you have to see one to fully appreciate it. They'll have a long row of about 100 gas pumps, and then over to the side, they'll have another 30 or so - just for those that don't want ethanol in their gasoline. But Bastrop is on one of the two Houston - Austin main roads, which probably explains its presence there.
Smoke and mirrors.
These federally-chartered purported utopias, dubbed "Freedom Cities," would feature "vertical takeoff-and-landing vehicles,"
These vehicles haven't been invented yet and it's going to take a while ...
Amended type certificates typically take 3-5 years to complete. By comparison, the certification of a new aircraft type can take between 5 and 9 years.
FAA
They are currently building a new, larger Buccees in Bastrop.
These federally-chartered purported utopias, dubbed "Freedom Cities," would feature "vertical takeoff-and-landing vehicles,"
These vehicles haven't been invented yet and it's going to take a while ...
So you've never heard of helicopters?
Buc-ee’s was founded in Lake Jackson, a small Texas town with no interstate. They expanded to Freeport, Angleton, Brazoria, Alvin, Pearland; all not known for major interstates. They are known for being small towns where people need gas and might want to use a public restroom that is clean. The idea caught on and they moved to interstates, where people also wanted gas and clean restrooms.
Bastrop, which is indeed nowhere near Pflugerville (if one knows the area), has always been a good crossroads town located at the intersection of SH 21 and 71. Alas the important part of a “company town” in Bastrop is La Grange is only 30 miles away, which is rumored to once have had shack outside of town, a-haw, haw, haw, haw. Have Mercy.
The Colony looks to be a much larger housing development closer to Bastrop. I don’t recall national coverage of it. I can see why Musk would want to offer lower cost homes than 1/2 million for a house 20 miles outside Austin. The prices at The Colony are absurd. We are not talking about scenic vistas with accessible high class entertainment nearby. You got a commute and nothing else for those prices.
JAORE said...
About the company towns holding rent, groceries, etc as a monopoly.... Cookie asked;
"Do you think Musk's desired "company town" would deviate from the above in any significant manner?"
Yes, yes I do, Cookie. There's a brand new thing called the automobile. Maybe you've heard of it. If anyone tried the monopoly model today the car would negate the control.... unless the company town is a few hundred miles in diameter.
Automobiles + Amazon Prime + Walmart+ = no more "I owe my soul to the company store," no matter who own said store.
Getting a double-wide for $800 a month is a good deal even in Central Texas.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11855297/See-images-Elon-Musks-Texas-utopia-town-Snailbrook.html
Affordable housing is a fine and solid idea but it has nothing to do with 'the homeless'. The vast majority of street people who live in tents or sleep in doorways can't begin to afford 'affordable housing'. They can barely afford food, any medical treatment, drugs, alcohol or mental care. But they're useful for making 'affordable housing' arguments - an idea that can stand on its own.
These federally-chartered purported utopias, dubbed "Freedom Cities," would feature "vertical takeoff-and-landing vehicles,"
These vehicles haven't been invented yet and it's going to take a while ...
Rob Crawford responded...
"So you've never heard of helicopters?"
Or Sao Paulo, Brazil. There are around 400 buildings that have heliports, and about twice that number of helicopters flying around.
That’s a lot of “what ifs,” BIII Zhang.
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