31–40 of 74 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a movie about this exact subject called Robocop .
Privatized police forces are also one of the standard topics of cyberpunk.
The problem is real and I don't blame Facebook for being concerned. Although, it's sadly typical of them to propose their own privately-paid-for police force.
Facebook is trying to set up their own Company Town. Usually, the response to this interpretation is to dismiss the possibility, with the company town being one of those "problems from last century we don't see anymore", and dismissing the problem like that is dangerous.
The coal companies (and similar) never really lost their towns, regardless of specifics of who's name is on the land deeds. It works out the same when there's only the one employer in the area. Facebook is not alone as a newcomer, either; Google has had some questionable press recently with their buses that seen to go wherever they want like they own the place, and they've been playing land games as well. There was even a story here recently about their price-fixing scam to slow wage growth and prevent competition ("bidding wars").
While current issues like the NSA has us distracted at the moment, I strongly believe this problem - where we forget about the labor issues of the past and allow the industrial-revolution-era problems and abuses slowly creep back in - is the longer-term fight, with stuff like the NSA's spying being more of a symptom of the problem.
Many people have observed that some of the NSA's statements and "interpretations" no longer seem to be tethered to any rational "legal basis" or "social contract", as they spin yet another justification for their behavior. Similarly, if Facebook and Google, etc, are allowed to continue buying up bits and pieces of our country, I hope you like that kind of "making up the law as we go" way of doing things. Once they gain that kind of de facto control over a piece of the country, they become effectively sovereign. Any power that might stop them is too far away and dealing with their own mess.
What do you call a form of government with a weak, basically non-existent amount of central control, thereby letting a handful of very powerful, very rich players to rule over their little corner of the world as they see fit?
You call it Feudalism, of course.
[1] http://mashable.com/2013/10/03/facebook-housing-complex/
[2] http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/feminisms-tip...
[3] http://thebaffler.com/past/facebook_feminism_like_it_or_not
Here's an alternate proposal: don't let companies donate to government, but do raise their taxes and provide adequate policing.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/08/facebook-uk-...
This was in one of the comments; > Get the gang activity under control, and it actually would be > quite nice. The irony is, if it became safe, it probably would > gentrify rapidly, housing prices would go up, and the poor people > who rent would have to find somewhere else to live. Is it just me who thinks it's terribly sad there are people apologizing for decreasing crime and therefore increasing property value? Th…
I absolutely agree with the sentiment, but density housing on high value property tends to result in high rise luxury units rather than affordable apartments. There are worse things, but it doesn't really address the problem.
Facebook has committed to provide up to $600,000 over three years, enough in the city's estimate to cover the salary and benefits of a full-time officer. According to this http://jeffwongdesign.com/2010/03/nypd-officers-can-make-6-f... , NYPD can make 91K after 6 years in the service. Is Facebook paying less? I don't know the cost of benefit and insurance. I really doubt a single police officer will receive more than…
> NYPD can make 91K after 6 years in the service. > > Is Facebook paying less? I don't know the cost of benefit and insurance. I really doubt a single police officer will receive more than $100K benefit in three years. I would be very surprise if they do! Rule of thumb in government: double the wage to achieve full-cost of a salaried employee.
For example: http://blog.intuit.com/employees/how-much-does-an-employee-r...
They don't want the cop to do any kind of citations, so they just want the armed presence that is licensed to kill (which I believe statistics say is more likely to shoot a bystander).
Add this data point to Facebook setting up their own dorm/apartment project[1] and their efforts prevent employees from having any free time outside of work[2] so they can undo the last century or so of social progress that gave us stuff like "(classic) feminism" and "unions"[3]. Facebook is trying to set up their own Company Town . Usually, the response to this interpretation is to dismiss the possibility, with the…
Yes, this is feudalism, plain and simple. They're simply abusing basic democratic institutions to obfuscate the fact.
Add this data point to Facebook setting up their own dorm/apartment project[1] and their efforts prevent employees from having any free time outside of work[2] so they can undo the last century or so of social progress that gave us stuff like "(classic) feminism" and "unions"[3]. Facebook is trying to set up their own Company Town . Usually, the response to this interpretation is to dismiss the possibility, with the…
On the flip side, there's a decent amount of wealth being funneled into the town via paychecks to the workers. So the total area living standard goes up, sometimes considerably. People have opportunities they didn't have before, both work-wise and otherwise, and new things can show up based upon the company's spark. Sort of like the famous Schockley Seven.
I would not qualify the towns I lived near as feudalistic. That's far too overt and encompassing. Rather, the executives/CEOs were people whose opinion might be asked on tricky policy questions, or whose opinion, when offered, was taken seriously.