Elon Musk is on the path to turning his employees into his own personal sims, as it appears the billionaire tech mogul is buying up parcels of land in Texas to build his very own town. Musk wants to create his own Texan Utopia where his employees can live and work, perhaps with the intention that he becomes mayor of all.
We know that Musk likes ownership as well as his own perceived notions of freedom. He bought up Twitter so he could run it the way he wishes after he openly criticized the platform for curtailing freedom of speech. Since his acquisition, he has allowed previously banned members such as former President Trump, removed for inciting violence and insurrection on January 6, 2021, as well as controversial figures Andrew Tate and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had both been banned for hate speech, to return to the platform.
Now, he is taking his desire for ownership into the physical world as he appears set to create his own town. According to The Wall Street Journal entities connected to Musk have been acquiring vast acres of land near Austin, Texas. These entities are apparently working towards incorporating a town, Snailbrook into the 3500 acres purchased, a reference to Musk’s tunneling firm, Boring Company.
Tech companies have long offered many amenities on their campus sites as a way to further motivate their staff to stay longer and work longer; Google’s Googleplex in California boasts laundry rooms, swimming pools, a bowling alley, volleyball courts, and, of course, a massage room for all those stiff necks that have been staring at screens all day.
Musk would appear to want to take this one step further with Snailbrook, offering employees at SpaceX, Tesla, and Boring Co. the ability “to be able to live in new homes with below-market rents.” All of these businesses have headquarters in Texas after the tech mogul moved away from California in 2020 after getting frustrated with the state’s Covid-19 restrictions. Musk has been known to go up against state and federal regulations in the past, owning his own town may give him more power to do things as he sees fit, standing on high above his employees as mayor perhaps.
This isn’t the first time that towns have sprung up around businesses; during the industrial revolution towns were created around factories as factory owners wanted their workers to live close by. We could be seeing a renaissance of the “company town” as large tech companies, such as Musk’s, seek to find housing for their employees as house prices only continue to rise.
Though this system can have its benefits, with companies able to provide, as stated above “below-market rent” with decent amenities to keep employees happy and motivated, it also comes with the risk of abuse, with employers essentially owning employee homes and able to potentially use that as a threat against staff. Who knows which way Musk will go if he successfully starts his own town.