this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 6 points 37 minutes ago

So they basically want to bring back the company towns from the gilded age, but more dystopian thanks to the possibilities of modern technology. Characteristics of company towns often were: "controlling and/or exploitative".

Control: If your employer does something unethical, will you dare go against it, if it means that not only will you lose your job, but you and your family will be also be kicked out of your house, school, town, ... Very few would.

Exploitative: where can the company town residents shop and find services? In the company shops of course. This constrained supply also leads to subpar service for high prices. And if company sales are down, the company will spend less on wages, but keep the company shop prices the same since the shoppers have no alternative anyhow.

Add in modern technology, and some of those towns will be like Brave New World, while others will evolve into 1984. Dystopian.

[–] missandry351@lemmings.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

Why are billionaires such free loaders? Build your own shit with your own money!

[–] Chessmasterrex@lemmy.world 2 points 25 minutes ago

It's odd how some people get wealthy and then want to start their own utopian fifedom. Rich guys were attempting this throughout the 19th century too.

[–] febra@lemmy.world 6 points 1 hour ago

Soon they'll start building freedom camps around these cities and will fill them up with the millions of incarcerated Americans so they can work towards freedom. As Germans have put it before, work makes you free.

[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 9 points 1 hour ago

Slave Plantations?

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 46 minutes ago

Are they anything like red states? If so, they are here to suck at the teet of bigger, better states like California that provide for them.

Fuck these welfare queens.

[–] Billybob22@feddit.uk 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Freedom Cities, even the name is a lie.

[–] AynRandLibertarian@lemmy.world 2 points 40 minutes ago

It's been opposite day for a while now....

[–] taanegl@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Hey guys, have you heard this new punk band? They got this weird lead singer called Johnny Silverhand...

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

We already have those, ZEDEs in Honduras I think India used to have one called Lavasa & it failed😂

[–] Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world 22 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I just wish they would be honest with their naming schemes. Stop with the "freedom this" and "freedom that" nonsense. They don't give a good goddam about freedom and we all know it. They are just trying to build "company towns" with touchscreens. We've already been down this road. You can slap all the lipstick you want on it, but it's still a fucking pig.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Its spelled Freedumb now.

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 19 points 5 hours ago

government officials ending every phrase with, "brought to you by carls jr" is getting more real of a likelihood all the time.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

elon's already wanting to build musklandia in texas.

[–] GenXLiberal@lemmy.world 15 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I guarantee those execs think they will be building Star Trek / Federation level society. But the comment above is right, it will be Cyberpunk just with shittier technologies driven by “the invisible hand of the market” or some other drivel.

[–] Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world 19 points 4 hours ago

Oh they know exactly what kind of cities they want to build. The wealthy have been wanting their slaves back since 1865.

[–] affenlehrer@feddit.org 4 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

I believe the federation in Star Trek doesn't even use money

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

They do, they don't inside the federation because it's in practice largely post scarcity. Outside of federation space they use federation credits (likely based on stores of rare hard/impossible to replicate materials) and specifically around ds9 the currency was gold pressed latinum.

Also voyager with replicator rations and Holodeck time.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

they only allowed it on ds9 space station , when dealing with other races. in the form of latinum. also barring the marque colonies.

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

DS9 just threw the whole concept of a utopia out all together. With some pretty great results, so I'm OK with it.

[–] RaptorBenn@lemmy.world 13 points 8 hours ago

Cyberpunk 2025

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 1 points 4 hours ago
[–] Azal@pawb.social 47 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

[–] imvii@lemmy.ca 43 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

These zones would allow wealthy investors to write their own laws and set up their own governance structures which would be corporately controlled and wouldn’t involve a traditional bureaucracy.

Why do I read this as incel rape cities?

[–] jameslkent@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

They should absolutely do this because tech bros cannot do municipal government and they will spend years throwing all of their money into a nuclear powered bitcoin mining boondoggle with open sewage that produces nothing.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmings.world 4 points 5 hours ago

Fordlandia, multiplied by the 1%. If that removes billionaires from our society for good, I approve.

[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 15 points 10 hours ago

You know what? They should approve it. Give all the MAGAts free homes there and they can all suck trumps dick their. Let the rest of us live in an actually productive and healthy society.

[–] TheDeadlySquid@lemm.ee 14 points 11 hours ago

Ironically, “Freedom Cities” not free.

Every time an oppressor wants to enslave people, they use "freedom" as an excuse.

Exhibit A: People's Liberation Army. Its not a conquering, its liberating 🤣

Or Exhibit B: Maga

How do people ever get fooled by this? Its so dumb

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 9 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Holy shit, it's the Burbclaves from Snow Crash.

[–] MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago

Or the corporate entities from Jennifer Government.

[–] spacequetzal@lemm.ee 20 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

More people need to play BioShock to understand why this is a bad idea.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmings.world 3 points 5 hours ago

No, no, Rapture was an EXCELLENT idea. Let's send Trump, Musk, and all the rest down there, and watch the results on television. It would be cathartic.

[–] Srh@lemmy.world 15 points 11 hours ago

Or look at the history of company towns

[–] NotLemming@lemm.ee 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] gabbath@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Yep. It's my go-to video explainer for "freedom cities" aka network states.

[–] Zzyzx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

They keep trying this shit even though it never works. (Like there's literally no pictures of this actually, totally existent place. But it's a paradise. Trust me.)

[–] gabbath@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

First off, this video is obligatory watching on the topic. Go watch it now if you haven't.

Ok, back to Próspera. From the Wikipedia article:

The company is financed by several investors and venture capital firms, including Balaji Srinivasan, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen, through the venture capital company Pronomos Capital.

It's literally the same guys, and they're trying it in the US too btw.

That Balaji guy in particular is the one who came up with the idea of "freedom cities", which he calls network states. He's also a follower of Curtis Yarvin, obviously, and just like him he's a two bit fascist crank who thinks he's of superior IQ.

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[–] civil_drive@sh.itjust.works 23 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Libertarians do not understand how society works.

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[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

And who is stupid enough to move there? Ffs

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 5 points 4 hours ago

People with no choice, my friend.

[–] KingCake_Baby@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago

"techno-feudalism"

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 17 points 14 hours ago

Christ, why did we have to get the Shitty Dystopia versions from Snow Crash, Jennifer Government, and every Gibson novel, but none of the cool and fun shit like flying cars, off-planet living, and advanced medical/cybernetic tech.

Gonna have the corpo company town again. Instead of an online walled garden it’ll be a walled city with it’s own currency that gets traded at a steep loss if you try to go anyplace nicer. Keep you in your place.

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