And as always, it all started with the best intentions.
I get paid 20% of my salary in Meal Vouchers (I hate them) by Edenred, and an extra 2% in a voucher that can only be spent on certain stores.
Meal vouchers are commonly accepted because they have a 17% tax break, but retailers get 10% less than the face value (they're more expensive for them than credit cards).
Here the contrast is much bigger. Typical cyberpunk corporate workers have a dream life, but ows total loyalty to its company to keep it.
That isn't totally fair, but a lot of Chinese workers live in small shared rooms provided by their employer, they then send money "home" to their villages.
I wouldn't call China lawless, but it is is a bit miserable, particularly if you get fired from a job.
The only thing I don't understand about living in the googleplex is sex. Logistics is everything - I remember once dealing with a month of involuntary celibacy due to a bad living situation. NOT an experience I want to repeat. I guess these folks just have much better game than I do.
Year-long celibacy is not super uncommon in India, but Indian culture is explicitly set up to make sure women don't have sex until their parents get them married off. I'm really shocked to hear that SF is that bad.
The fact is SF has women and no parental supervision. How could it possibly be this bad?
I'm honestly asking because I'm curious about the mechanics of it.
There is no step 2, as far as I can tell. One of the many, many reasons I left SF. (For Seattle, which is...marginally better, but not good by any measure, in this aspect.)
How many changes of clothes do you own? I don't have an extensive wardrobe, but I couldn't fit the clothes I wear in an average week into a bag of that size, let alone everything else I use regularly.
Let me emphasize that the larger backpack is not carry-on luggage. It's a $200 fancy pack, something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00388W5KO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...
What's the "turnover" with those clothes - i.e. how often do you buy new ones and throw out the old ones? Ever gotten any weird looks for running around in mostly the same outfits? What do you do when you need a suit?
What do you do about your data? Do you carry any additional HDDs in those backpacks? Don't you keep any spare hardware around for when things break to be able to replace them quickly?
What about legal documents (birth certificate, graduation certificates, tax declarations, etc.)? Do you store them somewhere safely, or keep them on you?
Also, do you have any allergies? One thing I allways seem to have too little of when travelling is napkins/tissues.
What do you do for more mundane things like scissors and paper and priting stuff?
The backpack contains only a laptop, phone and tablet. I don't have massive amounts of data - I don't photograph every meal as some people do. When my stuff breaks, I pay a lot of money to fix/replace it.
Legal documents are stored with my parents in the US, except of course the passport.
I have no allergies and need no medication. The only tool I own is a leatherman multitool - I rarely need it, and it's good enough when I do. I don't use paper.
That said, our home furnishings just kind of peter out for the reasons that you mentioned.
People talk about sharing and stopping to own stuff you don't need. Which is probably a good idea, if one person owns a car and 10 use it when they need it.
But it stops when companies are in play. When they end up owning everything, we're all in trouble.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville
Cadbury was rather late to the game. UK companies were building villages for their workers all the way back to the late 1700s:
But I am also aware of defence companies that take on apprentices at 18, ship them across the country, and provide a room and free cafeteria meals. The company feel that, kids that age are still kids, and need looking after while they transition to independence in the same way as kids that go to university instead (dorms).
I can't see to recall the name of the book though. Soon enough we will be getting there though.
I'd be curious to know which one Atwood actually meant.
Surely you don't mean Google?
No. The current top voted comment in this thread is a guy who's telling everyone how to live out of a van. Hint: it's so safe outside the corporate safe zones that he can park his car in a parking lot and sleep there without worrying about being hassled by anyone.
The fact is - as cost of living goes up and commute becomes harder in big cities, Companies will adapt. I see primarily three ways:
a. Embrace the status quo and employees commute via trains/cars whatever. b. Companies allow people to work from home. c. Companies realize that, it is much more cost efficient if employees lived closer to their offices. Some projects can't be easily worked from home, so what will a company with billions of dollars in cash will do? I don't think companies owe anything to people in general - other than maximize profits for their shareholders, so it is quite viable that they provide housing to their employees.