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$700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

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Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#131

Post by fragmede »

paxys wrote: post #44

The piece seems pretty exaggerated to generate clicks. "Hacker houses" have been a thing in Silicon Valley forever. You share a large house with a bunch of like-minded people and get a tiny space of your own to sleep in. For someone in their early-mid 20s, what's the harm? It's the perfect way to build a community and have a blast.

"Build community" is not to be undervalued! Having mentors is great, but just having someone to tell your problems to, and have them just have them be facing the same problems, and have no solutions, doesn't seem like it would offer much support until you've experienced it. I didn't understand that when I was younger. The community you make at a hacker house is worth putting up with a lack of personal space for a time.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#132

Post by webworker »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #31

I scorned the SF tech scene growing up, and now that I'm getting older, it seems foolish that I didn't live there for a few years and try to fleece some VCs to build a crappy product and exit with millions, or at least take one of those cushy $350K jobs and bank most of it for a decade. Could be retired at 40, instead I'll be saving for retirement until 68.

Same

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#133

Post by freitzkriesler2 »

fragmede wrote: post #129
freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Run the numbers, those salary numbers aren't as good as you think once taxes and CoL are factored in. And for every big VC payout there are thousands with worthless monopoly paper options. You're probably farther ahead than you think.

CoL is the big one, along with lifestyle inflation. It depends on the numbers, is a smaller percent saved off a bigger paycheck more than a bigger percent off a smaller paycheck? Too many variables to ever really say, so the thing to optimize for is hygge.

100% on the money (pun intended) and also something people forget is how trapped you are if you take a $350k job.

That salary puts you square in the top 3% of wage earners in the country. Finding another comparable job becomes stupid hard so you end up trapped.

Granted if you're an engineer from a top school or have MS/PhD you'll be OK but that's always my fear - getting a good job and then losing it and not being able to take another because of that horrible lifestyle inflation.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#134

Post by mixmastamyk »

tomohelix wrote: post #91
mixmastamyk wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scrappy people solving problems is the only way problems are gonna get solved. Also living in a dorm is not the hardship you seem to think it is. It’s better accommodations than 90% of people in history have ever lived. Watch Les Miserables for a reality check. Better to direct anger at the landed gentry who made this possible.

The apathy is what I am angry about. The sentiment that "this is fine" is what allowed this to happen. Laws and regulations need to be adjusted to enable better housing for more people. But they get blocked because those who hold the means don't see any problem with people below them living in squalid conditions like this. Make no mistake, I see this as a terrible living situation. Just because some war time refugees…

Reiterating your point that capsule hotels are “squalid” is not compelling.

And we don’t have to go 100 years, still probably better than 50% of people living in the world today.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#135

Post by paulryanrogers »

friend_and_foe wrote: post #124
paulryanrogers wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can still distain worsening living conditions. These folks are paying more for less space than a closet. And starting up in an era of more entrenched incumbents with higher interest rates. So looks like worsening odds for more expensive lottery tickets, at least from the outside looking in.

This isn't worsening living conditions though. 50 years ago, in most places in the US, people shit into pits in the ground covered by a shed with a crescent carved into the door. They had lots of land, and they lived in drafty wooden shacks with, at best, a wood stove to keep them warm. 100 years ago in cities like new York most new immigrants lived in rickety stick buildings and took a shit in shared privies. The fa…

Apples and oranges? Thread is about SF. Having known someone who lived there ~50 years ago, not to mention the parent poster, they described better living conditions for less money.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#136

Post by BurningFrog »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #104
BurningFrog wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A human being shouldn't have to live in a space that small. The moral instinct that opposes renting out beds like these, but has no reaction to people sleeping on the street (because no one gets paid) is fascinating!

That's making a pretty big assumption about the poster and their views.

I don't know the poster specifically, of course, but this is a very common view.

It's known, at least by its opponents, as "The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics".

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#137

Post by HDThoreaun »

tomohelix wrote: post #90
gamepsys wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm honestly confused about which part specifically you find unacceptable. Do you think it should be illegal to sell housing smaller than a certain minimum size? Do you think the price is too high? Do you think the location is awful?

Someone working full time should at least be compensated enough to have a proper living condition. A box is not a proper living condition. For a minimum wage worker, $700/month is basically at the limit of what they can afford for rent. And yet this is all they can get? And people are cheering for it?

Ok but the current reality is even worse than this. Yes, I am cheering for options that make housing more affordable, it's better than doing nothing.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#138

Post by ShamelessC »

azinman2 wrote: post #32
ShamelessC wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> access to a coworking space (and obviously, bathrooms) Neither of those things are obvious. 700$/month is more than enough for an apartment with 1.5 bedrooms where I live. This seems nightmarish.

And I could go to a super rural area and get something even cheaper. People also pay even more than this for super tiny claustrophobic apartments in NYC and HK. Cities provide value in all kinds of ways, and it turns out they’re popular. Having cheap options that allows a wider range of people to take advantage of it sounds like a great idea to me.

I guess it's kind of hard for me to imagine any city so amazing that people are not just willing but grateful to live in a literal pod. I've worked remotely for SV companies and I just don't get the appeal in the internet era. To each their own, I suppose.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#139

Post by [deleted] »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #48
ShamelessC wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> access to a coworking space (and obviously, bathrooms) Neither of those things are obvious. 700$/month is more than enough for an apartment with 1.5 bedrooms where I live. This seems nightmarish.

I could get something for $150/month in Thailand, maybe even near the beach. I can’t imagine being stuck in middle America paying $700/month for something similar.

[deleted]

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#140

Post by ctjlewis »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #31

I scorned the SF tech scene growing up, and now that I'm getting older, it seems foolish that I didn't live there for a few years and try to fleece some VCs to build a crappy product and exit with millions, or at least take one of those cushy $350K jobs and bank most of it for a decade. Could be retired at 40, instead I'll be saving for retirement until 68.

My salary is $20,000 right now and I cut my health insurance. Obviously if I’m staying in a pod, we don’t have millions of dollars in investment.

I’m doing what I can with what I have.

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