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Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were ordinances in place to discourage/prohibit that though.

It seems like every Wal-Mart has a sign now for this. I imagine their big empty parking lots might have received decent use a few years back.

While we do not offer electrical service or accommodations typically necessary for RV customers, Walmart values RV travelers and considers them among our best customers. Consequently, we do permit RV parking on our store parking lots as we are able. Permission to park is extended by individual store managers, based on availability of parking space and local laws. Please contact management in each store to ensure accommodations before parking your RV

from: http://corporate.walmart.com/frequently-asked-questions

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#93
post #73

I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere. Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang. 2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use…

[deleted]

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#94
post #73

I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere. Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang. 2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use…

1/ or you know,just find a housemate/roommate if you cant afford to rent a place alone... sorry but sleeping in a van doesnt "scale",and is not that economic.

EDIT:the downvote mob is out for blood,as usual.I just said that sleeping in a van for 6 month is the worse thing to do,nobody can to tell me with a straight face that one should do that,especially in winter.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#95
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least in campus you have a bed, clubs, parties and other interaction opportunities, etc I think Google has all of the above.

Google has clubs as in nightclubs where you can pick up women? Or clubs like chess clubs and stuff?

Was thinking of the latter. Shows what kind of person I am, I guess.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#96
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird. There has always been some water-cooler talk among the engineers about how it would be possible to live on campus. But these journalists actually found people who've done it. And they're engineers; most of our speculation focused on interns.

This isn't really journalists, this is Yahoo reposting Business Insider reposting some people's claims from Quora.

BusinessInsider seems to be taking the BuzzFeed "news" sourcing approach. They are certainly good at getting their links onto aggregation services. It's a very annoying combination.

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

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#98

Silicon Valley: Where highly paid ($100-$200k+) engineers sleep in cars to save money on obscenely expensive rent. Honestly, recently moving to Seattle has been refreshing to me in this regard. I find Seattle tech industry pay no less than SF, plus no state income tax, and for the same rent as SF you can practically live like a king/queen here. I wonder how long the housing situation in SV can keep up until everythin…

> Silicon Valley: Where highly paid ($100-$200k+) engineers sleep in cars to save money on obscenely expensive rent.

I've known quite a few people who have lived exactly like this for a while. You know what? None are from Silicon Valley and are all from different walks of life. You have your people who ended up in difficult situations, people strapped for cash, people who were ultra minimalist, people who were looking for adventure, people who didn't want to be tied down, people looking to save up money for a couple years. None had Google's perks/free meals. All different motivations. Some by choice, some not.

To generalize that Silicon Valley is somehow responsible from one article about one subset of people is disingenuous.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#99
post #68

Silicon Valley: Where highly paid ($100-$200k+) engineers sleep in cars to save money on obscenely expensive rent. Honestly, recently moving to Seattle has been refreshing to me in this regard. I find Seattle tech industry pay no less than SF, plus no state income tax, and for the same rent as SF you can practically live like a king/queen here. I wonder how long the housing situation in SV can keep up until everythin…

Rent in central cities is one of the unintuitive outcomes of the modern economy. SV might be an extreme example, but it isn't the only one. The world is far more globalized. People work with clients, customers, and coworkers mostly through the internet, even if they are in the same building or city. Google's a good example. They have offices all over. They have clients everywhere. Common sense would dictate that empl…

The cities where a $140k salary exist in the same quantity as in the bay area are roughly equivalent with respect to the cost to live there. A job in SF that pays $140k might fetch $60-$90k in most of the rest of the US, with higher salaries being more rare. So while there are lots of places where $140k is practically king-like, the number of positions with that salary are both hotly competed for and far fewer in number.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#100
post #9

Does anyone else feels like we're really getting towards the cyberpunk universe ? with corporations that completely own the life of their employees by providing them with everything, and a violent lawless and miserable outside world. And as always, it all started with the best intentions.

>corporations that completely own the life of their employees

Surely you don't mean Google?

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