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@denny

Oh this is good.

@afx

And they charged the workers rent to live there. They were paid in company scrip, useful only in the company store and to pay rent. It was one step above outright slavery.

@denny

@denny
I wonder what effect this would have on home prices. I suspect it would have a deflationary effect, which would anger landlords but make it easier for people to own their own homes.

I'm for it.

@EvoScale @denny
Flat taxes are regressive and lead inevitably to more income inequality. Setting a low flat tax rate means municipalities must charge higher sales and property taxes, which make up a higher proportion of poor people's incomes. Non-homeowners see the latter in the form of higher rents.

and the threat of "you complain about anything at work and we kick your family out of the house in the middle of the night" was part of that.

The more reasonable version is something like, when a city agrees to the infrastructure for a big factory, the factory pays to build housing that is then either public or sold to the workers at a wage-reasonable cost.

@ralfmaximus @afx @denny

@denny that’s actually a great idea but I could easily see them making loop holes or exceptions for these people

@ralfmaximus @denny @clew

We are talking about different centuries and probably different countries. My reference is the Ruhrgebiet as well as Munich in Germany. Margarete Krupp at the beginning of the 20th century for example.

Do you know what were the constraints on how the factory managed the housing? Always interesting to get into the details of anything that worked!

@afx @ralfmaximus @denny