Elon Musk Is Planning a 'Utopian' Company Town Called Snailbrook
Nikki Main
Thu, March 9, 2023
Elon Musk is reportedly planning his own Utopian town
Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX, and Boring Company CEO Elon Musk is adding one more title to his resume: town owner. The multi-billionaire is reportedly working on building his own “utopia” in Texas and plans to name it Snailbrook.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk plans to build the town outside of Austin near his Boring and SpaceX facilities which are currently under construction, according to the outlet. Facebook photos revealed the area already has a collection of modular homes, a pool, an outdoor sports area, and a gym, and already has signs posted that read: “Welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021.”
According to the Journal, Musk’s plans include building a place for his employees to live and charging them roughly $800 per month for one and two-bedroom homes, with the caveat that they would have 30 days to vacate the premises if they were laid off or quit. Although the plans are still in the works, it seems like a good time to ask: Is this even a good idea?
Companies have been lapping up towns for decades, creating a place where they could establish a monopoly of power in an area for their wide-ranging companies and make a profit from their employees. The idea, in essence, sounds good—work for an employer and you get to live in the town with access to all the amenities for a discounted price. But what happens when things go south?
Company towns have a long history of creating so-called utopias for their workers but also created towns that were akin to a prison camps where employers are the landlord and the shopkeep and everything else one could need. Many towns were built by coal companies and the workers often lived in poverty and abuse.
The majority of the company towns were built on the labor and skill set of the workers without adequately paying them or providing normal living standards. According to The Smithsonian, when the coal, steel, and textile industries were booming in the early 19th Century, companies built the towns to require their workers to live in basic housing and sent the kids to company-owned schools where the students were only taught information from the boss’s perspective.
The workers also didn’t receive adequate compensation and were paid in scrip rather than regular money. Scrip was a currency that workers could only use at the company store which often drastically increased its prices by about 20% more than other establishments outside the compound.
While these town models are thought to exist in the past, they are still around today. With Elon Musk showing himself to be a right-wing task master who reportedly fires employees on a whim, loathes safety regulations, fosters discriminatory workplaces, and generally seems to believe laws don’t apply to him, do we really want him running his own town? He already started his own school for his kids, do you think he’s above trying to pay employees with a ScripCoin token?
Elon Musk is reportedly building his own town in Texas
Chris Morris
Thu, March 9, 2023
Elon Musk has reportedly bought thousands of acres of land about 35 miles outside of Austin and plans to build his own town there for employees to live and work.
The Wall Street Journal reports Musk has described the city as a “sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River.” By creating the town, Musk would be able to set some of the city’s regulations. Last year, at an all-hands meeting of Boring employees, president Steve Davis reportedly talked about holding an election for mayor of the city.
The proposed municipality is said to be adjacent to the Boring and SpaceX facilities that are currently under construction, and to already include some modular homes and signs hang from poles reading “welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021”
Snailbrook is the name of Boring’s mascot.
Musk reportedly wants to offer rental houses to workers that are well below the local market value. One ad allegedly put the price of a two- or three-bedroom home at $800, compared to $2,200 a month in nearby Bastrop, Texas. There are also plans for a Montessori school in the municipality
Texas law requires an area to have at least 201 residents before it can incorporate. Plans, which the Journal shows in its story, call for the construction of 110 more homes in the area where Snailbrook is located.
Over the past three years, entities tied to Musk have bought at least 3,500 acres in the general Austin area. The Journal says some reports indicate Musk controls as much as 6,000 acres.
Musk first came to Texas two years ago, abandoning California and calling it the land of “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation.” Last month, though, Tesla announced plans to expand its California presence, moving its engineering headquarters to the state.
Should Musk be building his own city, he won’t be the only Texas billionaire to own a town. In 2021, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban purchased the entire town of Mustang, Texas for an undisclosed amount.
The city had been for sale since 2017, originally with an asking price of $4 million. It eventually dropped to $2 million, but still couldn’t find a buyer. Mustang is located about an hour south of Dallas in Navarro County, right off of Interstate 45. At 77 acres, though, it’s nothing close to what Musk reportedly has in mind.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Chris Morris
Thu, March 9, 2023
Elon Musk has reportedly bought thousands of acres of land about 35 miles outside of Austin and plans to build his own town there for employees to live and work.
The Wall Street Journal reports Musk has described the city as a “sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River.” By creating the town, Musk would be able to set some of the city’s regulations. Last year, at an all-hands meeting of Boring employees, president Steve Davis reportedly talked about holding an election for mayor of the city.
The proposed municipality is said to be adjacent to the Boring and SpaceX facilities that are currently under construction, and to already include some modular homes and signs hang from poles reading “welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021”
Snailbrook is the name of Boring’s mascot.
Musk reportedly wants to offer rental houses to workers that are well below the local market value. One ad allegedly put the price of a two- or three-bedroom home at $800, compared to $2,200 a month in nearby Bastrop, Texas. There are also plans for a Montessori school in the municipality
Texas law requires an area to have at least 201 residents before it can incorporate. Plans, which the Journal shows in its story, call for the construction of 110 more homes in the area where Snailbrook is located.
Over the past three years, entities tied to Musk have bought at least 3,500 acres in the general Austin area. The Journal says some reports indicate Musk controls as much as 6,000 acres.
Musk first came to Texas two years ago, abandoning California and calling it the land of “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation.” Last month, though, Tesla announced plans to expand its California presence, moving its engineering headquarters to the state.
Should Musk be building his own city, he won’t be the only Texas billionaire to own a town. In 2021, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban purchased the entire town of Mustang, Texas for an undisclosed amount.
The city had been for sale since 2017, originally with an asking price of $4 million. It eventually dropped to $2 million, but still couldn’t find a buyer. Mustang is located about an hour south of Dallas in Navarro County, right off of Interstate 45. At 77 acres, though, it’s nothing close to what Musk reportedly has in mind.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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