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Comment by JeanMarcS | Hacker News Reader

So we are back to the 19th century ?

Will they have their own money only usable there and pay their local employees with it too ? /s

They can use any money they want, but if they choose to use PrimeDollars (tm), they will earn a 5% discount and free shipping on all purchases!

Company towns aren't that rare. Here's an example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_City,_Pennsylvania

Though according to that article the actual Ford plants have been closed for years.

19th century?

This smells more of medieval style feudalism.

In the UK, there's a great example of a late-19C/early 20C "model village", called Bournville, created by the Cadbury family to house workers for its factory. It was quite visionary in its day, and remains highly desirable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville

In Italy, there is Rosignano Solvay, a small town that is actually named after the company (producing essentially sodium bicarbonate):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosignano_Solvay

You'll need to use the italian wikipedia for more details:

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosignano_Solvay

The actual "Solvay village", i.e. the Company Town:

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villaggio_Solvay

was built in the '20's and '30's.

Other one-company model villages in the UK are Saltaire [1] and Port Sunlight [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltaire [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight

>This smells more of medieval style feudalism.

In what way? Are people obligated to work for amazon?

When Amazon is the only viable place of employment in your town, yes.

Look to Walmart- America's largest supermarket chain, and America's second largest employer (second only to the U.S. government). Rural America is a sea of "Walmart towns", where the best employment is the only employment.

Common sense says otherwise. If this were true, Walmart would eventually siphon all of the money out of that town. Have we seen this happen widespread? Many people commute to larger towns/cities for work which may only be a 15-20 minute drive.

> When Amazon is the only viable place of employment in your town, yes.

>Rural America is a sea of "Walmart towns", where the best employment is the only employment.

Are you being hyperbolic by saying that amazon/walmart is the "only" or "only viable" place of employment? Are there literally no other places to work? If you're being hyperbolic, at what point does it count as "medieval style feudalism"? I searched around on wikipedia for what "feudalism" is, and despite my best efforts I can't pin down on a good definition. However, it definitely doesn't seem to be "one entity provides most of the employment in an area".

I mean- no one is bound to the land, and Amazon's claim is not contingent on Bezos providing an army to the state on request.

From a peon^Wworker's point of view, there may not be much of a difference between a medieval fiefdom and a 19th century company town. The term "robber baron" is apt.

There was enormous difference. For one thing, workers in company towns were free to quit and move somewhere else, while medieval peasants could not.

In theory, anyway. Being legally permitted to do something is a really low bar to clear. Even now, in the era of cheap transportation and free real-time information to base your decisions on, for the majority of working-class families the idea of packing up and trying again somewhere else is less than feasible. In the 1800s? Not a fscking chance, even if your employee was gracious enough to pay you with hard currency rather than Monopoly (heh) money. No cars. Trains were expensive and only an option in some places. No Internet, TV, or even radio. No formal education to speak of. Wages at subsistence levels, because why would they pay you a penny more?

In 1800s, people packed up on oxen wagons, and crossed the continent on undeveloped trails. If you look at the actual statistics, in early 1900, people used to move around the country more, not less than today.

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