Today on a friend’s Facebook feed I saw an article on “Co-Living” or “PodSharing”. My immediate reaction was “WTF?”

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/success/podshare-co-living/index.html

This… is just unreal. I mean, I get it; property prices in the Bay Area are completely insane and finding a place to live when you’re young, or an immigrant (or both) can be incredibly stressful and difficult to accomplish. But WTH is this?

I was most immediately reminded of the Foxconn Dorms, talked about a lot around 6 or 7 years ago;

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/inside-foxconn-3-some-dormitories/263900/

Apart from the sheen of “natural materials” (read; wood), how does this really differ? I mean apart from the fact that the “PodSharing” is a private-industry version of this where you pay for it directly instead of your company providing it.

And the thing that strikes me is the same people who are living in these “Pods” are quite likely the same people who were all over the comment sections of Reddit and the like back then saying “Thank God I’m an American and not working in one of these Chinese sweatshops…”

Well, kids; how do you like these new American high-tech sweatshops?