SpaceX Wants Starbase To Become an Official City In Texas (space.com) 113
SpaceX has filed a petition to incorporate its Starbase facility in South Texas as a new city, aiming to streamline infrastructure development and support the growing workforce needed for Starship production and testing. Space.com reports: "To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community," SpaceX said in the petition, which was shared in a post on X (formally Twitter). "That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley."
The petition was addressed to Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., the county's top elected official. The next step will be for officials to review the petition to determine if it complies with statutory requirements. Then, an election would be held to incorporate Starbase. [...] With Starship expected to "fundamentally alter humanity's access to space," SpaceX aims to make the area of the Starbase launch site the "Gateway to Mars," the company wrote in the petition. [...] "Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live -- for hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity's future in space," SpaceX officials said in the petition.
The petition was addressed to Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., the county's top elected official. The next step will be for officials to review the petition to determine if it complies with statutory requirements. Then, an election would be held to incorporate Starbase. [...] With Starship expected to "fundamentally alter humanity's access to space," SpaceX aims to make the area of the Starbase launch site the "Gateway to Mars," the company wrote in the petition. [...] "Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live -- for hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity's future in space," SpaceX officials said in the petition.
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Where do they live? I count about 100 (tiny) possible dwellings: https://starbasebrewery.com/pa... [starbasebrewery.com]
Photo is over a year old. Tiny dwellings might not take long to construct. They also have an Airstream camp and even a hovercraft to ferry commuters across the Rio Grande. Hundreds might call it “home”. SpaceX isn’t exactly an unpopular employer.
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"SpaceX isn’t exactly an unpopular employer."
Is it approximately one? What "exactly" does this mean?
And this isn't about an employer, it's about a (potential) town. The willingness to confuse the two is precisely the problem. Humanity has moved past company towns, let's not return to indentured servitude, even in service to your nerd master.
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>Humanity has moved past company towns, let's not return to indentured servitude, even in service to your nerd master.
There are countless company towns, spread across pretty much every nation with meaningful industry potential. With countless new ones being started as industry grows, for example as Chinese industrial exodus is ongoing, new company towns are popping up all over South-East Asia near relocated factories.
About the only part of "humanity" that "moved past it" is the city dwelling pseudo-elite
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Corning New York is an example of a "good" company town, where the executives actively supported community outreach and education. A lot of that was lost when activist investors insisted that such costs be eliminated
Bisbee, Arizona was, in the past, a particularly horrible company town which, in separate instances deported Mexican workers to boxcars abandoned in the middle of the desert (presumably with a high death rate) and a Sheriff that got into a gun fight with US Army "Buffalo Soldiers" when they atte
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As opposed to NYC, New York, where nobody in the city gives a shit about you beyond whatever fines, levies and taxes they can put on you, because you're nothing but a number on a spreadsheet that contains so many lines, they'll probably never look at most of them. And life is so horrific that large percentage of the population is on some kind of drug to control the crippling mental state, legal or illegal.
This whole charade about "small towns bad" really highlights the sadness that radiates from all this "I
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Experience has shown that company towns aren't good for residents. However, experience has also shown that company towns are a good deal for employers.
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As compared to what? Experience has shown that company towns are far better for residents than large cities. So have objective facts that measure human well being, ranging from criminality to insanity.
And yet it's always residents of these horrific places that turn their noses up at small towns.
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Well, let's define "company town". I mean a town that is literally owned and controlled by the company. "Spacetown" (or whatever they decide to name themselves with free of Musk control) won't be literally owned by SpaceX but it is likely to be heavily controlled. Often companies hate this arrangement anyway, running a town and making sure it always acts in the company's best interests is a lot of time and money. Most companies find it simpler to just set up shop where infrastructure and
housing already e
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I don't play classic left wing "let's redefine the everything, until reality warps so much that my viewpoint becomes correct as long as I get to cherry pick the target too". Words are not magic. They do not create reality. And cherry picking helps even less.
I know that you as a stereotypical big city urbanite/suburbanite dweller believe the horror stories about de facto slavery, scrip and abuse. Reality check: by every available metric of mental health, people in company towns are better off than those in t
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But are residents of company owned towns do better than normal towns of equivalent size? Ie, small town versus small town.
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It is a mixed bag, read this informative article so you don't just rely on opinions [smithsonianmag.com]
Intro:
During the Industrial Revolution, company towns—communities built by businesses—sprouted up across the country. For anyone who wants to tour what remains of them today, it’s helpful to remember two things. First, as Hardy Green, author of The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy, says, these places ranged from the awful to the enviable. Towns built by co
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Depends on specifics of towns in question. There are well off towns, and then there are hell holes that are almost as bad and in very rare occasions actually worse than big cities.
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Obvious dishonesty being comparing towns from a long time ago with cities of today. Today, a poor man has better living conditions by most metrics than pretty much all kings that actually got to rule as sovereigns did (outside remaining monarchies like SA obviously). Everything from dentistry to variety of food to entertainment is vastly superior.
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No, humanity has not moved past company towns. The United States hasn't even moved past company towns. Example: Sinclair, WY [wikipedia.org] which is a company town built around the Sinclair oil refinery in Carbon County, WY.
There are other examples, but this one I recalled from driving past it on I-80 several times.
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But is the town still controlled by the company or is it an independent entity that just happens to have only one dominant company providing employment?
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...is it an independent entity that just happens to have only one dominant company providing employment
You're not going to get this. Politics is too corrupt to not have the town controlled factually by the employer if they really hold power over that many voters livelihoods.
Re: "Hundreds" live there already?! (Score:1)
Popular enough that getting admitted into Harvard or Stanford is a cakewalk in comparison to getting a job at SpaceX.
https://www.businesstoday.in/v... [businesstoday.in]
Both in terms of odds of acceptance and standing out enough that you pass screening.
Only (Score:3, Funny)
Only if we get to name it "Boondoggle".
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Sadly there are also countless perfectly nice people who have achieved absolutely nothing and never will. It's really not that easy.
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Funny how common it is now to see this excuse for Elmo's abhorrent behavior. "Absolutely nothing" as if that were even possible, is better than what that asshole has done.
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He has most definitely advanced the technology of self promotion to staggeringly new heights. Literally.
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"countless perfectly nice people" achieved being nice to others. In what demented world do you live?
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Sadly you are excusing present horrible behavior based on past achievements.
Sorry, nobody gets a free pass to usher in oligarchy because they financed companies that make rockets and electric cars.
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Past achievements are...? Ok, he got rich. That's not an achievement that others who are not his heirs should care about. He did not invent electric cars, or found Tesla. He got his wealthy through leveraging, not by being a genius or inventor. Present horrible behavior is also not new behavior. Forget Musk's politics, he's been dubious from the start, and the politics is just waking some people up to noticing it.
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Re: Only (Score:4, Funny)
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What has he invented?
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LMAO
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Leon, you don't need to post anonymously.
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"Never diss a miracle man, sonny. You diss a miracle man, you get rotten miracles!"
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Seems more like a snake-oil merchant these days.
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Seems more like a snake-oil merchant these days.
I'm definitely no fan of Elon and think "snake oil" is probably a fair description of "full self driving" but in terms of SpaceX that's not a fair categorization.
SpaceX has launched about as many rockets this year as NASA did space shuttle launches over the entire thirty year history of the program. I realize that's not an apples to apples comparison given that the STS missions were manned and the vast majority of Falcon missions are not, and the shuttle had more payload to LEO, but a Falcon mission also c
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Seems more like a snake-oil merchant these days.
I'm definitely no fan of Elon and think "snake oil" is probably a fair description of "full self driving" but in terms of SpaceX that's not a fair categorization.
SpaceX has launched about as many rockets this year as NASA did space shuttle launches over the entire thirty year history of the program. I realize that's not an apples to apples comparison given that the STS missions were manned and the vast majority of Falcon missions are not, and the shuttle had more payload to LEO, but a Falcon mission also costs, what, 5% of a shuttle mission?
That's not snake oil.
Seriously though - trying to flex on the Falcon 9 and Heavy's superiority compared to the Space Shuttle is a bit of a non sequitur. They are barely related. You are speaking of a now bog standard rocket versus what might be called a Space Pickup Truck, the difference between standard rocketry, and things like traveling to the Hubble and repairing it, or capturing satellites, or having several people doing experiments in space not on the Space Station. Or capacity.
Falcon 9 and Heavy are really good rock
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Yes, the SpaceX EMPLOYEES deserve 100% of the credit here. The CEO does not. SpaceX works because their management essentially ignores Musk's attempts to micromanage.
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I tend to agree with this take--SpaceX is the one organization that Elon controls that he seems to actually get out of the way and let the adults run the company. That does not change the fact that SpaceX isn't snake oil.
Re: Only (Score:2)
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Trollville
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As long as the town is not owned or controlled by a company, it is ok. However details matter here. Will the town be allowed to sue SpaceX, or will it be legally subservient? If the town is deserving of incorporation, then it does not need SpaceX to encourage this.
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Company Towns Again? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Wastewater? Are you talking about the clean water they used to douse the rocket pad?
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Wastewater? Are you talking about the clean water they used to douse the rocket pad?
Are you implying that clean water somehow doesn’t instantly become wastewater after using it for its intended purpose on a rocket pad?
* fills glass *
Drink up. Then we can sit back and hallucinate as to where it all goes.
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Are you objecting to the compounds in the water or to its technical definition? The impression I get is vapid, groundless hatred with hints of virtue signalling and pseudoenvironmentalism. You don't need to grasp at straws to say Musk is an asshole, it's a widely known fact that he is.
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Not confident that giving them streamlined processes will benefit humanity.
Perhaps if all the right people go to Mars?
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Not confident that giving them streamlined processes will benefit humanity.
Perhaps if all the right people go to Mars?
Going to be a million people there in 2050.
At some point, people will wake up to find out the purpose of StarShip is to deliver shitloads of StarLink Satellites for Musk's grand Kessler syndrome fun.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome.
I mean, who is going to install the StarShip Grabber on Mars?
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I mean, who is going to install the StarShip Grabber on Mars?
somewhat serious answer: they already demonstrated landing Starship on a concrete pad, and hovering above the ocean before splashing in.
somewhat unserious answer: robots! [wikipedia.org] Launch a starship filled with robots to Mars, as well as a few more with construction materials and equipment, and let them go to work. Yes, I know there's about a billion things to go wrong with this plan, but we're talking about Musk here - when isn't there?
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I mean, who is going to install the StarShip Grabber on Mars?
somewhat serious answer: they already demonstrated landing Starship on a concrete pad, and hovering above the ocean before splashing in.
somewhat unserious answer: robots! [wikipedia.org] Launch a starship filled with robots to Mars, as well as a few more with construction materials and equipment, and let them go to work. Yes, I know there's about a billion things to go wrong with this plan, but we're talking about Musk here - when isn't there?
Your second answer is the more plausible one. StarShip in and of itself the most tiny part of sending people to Mars. But we've seen precious little as in none - of Musk's people have provided those.
For all of the hate towards NASA which is quite popular in here, they actually have a plan. And it isn't the glam of Sci-Fi and Musk's folly. Indeed it is boring by comparison. A small team to do exploratory work, spending about a year on Mars.
No, not like this mass exodus of earthlings inn a few years. M
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"Not confident that giving them streamlined processes will benefit humanity."
There won't be any "giving", only taking. And the laws aren't structured to deny sociopath billionaires. Wait until this abomination gets big enough to have annexation powers. Then Musk will simply take control of everyone's land at the maximum rate the law allows. Don't confuse this with benefitting humanity.
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What they need to do to expand is dredge the estuary to create more land for themselves, in the same way that many Florid
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Re: Company Towns Again? (Score:2)
Yup, there's nothing Texans like better than new arrivals from California illegally squatting on their property.
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Yup, there's nothing Texans like better than new arrivals from California illegally squatting on their property.
Thats a pretty dark statement, since a squatter in Texas has “rights” that last as about as long as it takes for a gun to clear a holster.
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Yup, there's nothing Texans like better than new arrivals from California illegally squatting on their property.
Thats a pretty dark statement, since a squatter in Texas has “rights” that last as about as long as it takes for a gun to clear a holster.
Don't even need to be a squatter - just show up at the wrong address, and Texas law says you can kill the person.
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Well they seem to have welcomed Musk with open arms when he was a new arrival from California, so...
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> Looks like the very definition of a company town.
Maybe in an overly literal sense, but the originals were places out in the middle of nowhere and left the workers completely dependent on the company, which often left them in debt to the same company due to having to buy all their food, etc. from their employer.
Um... so how is this different? It sounds like you said, "It's not the same! Here's a list of ways it is the same: ..."
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> Um... so how is this different? It sounds like you said, "It's not the same! Here's a list of ways it is the same: ..."
Because this isn't the 1800s and people can just drive a couple of miles to buy things from businesses not run by their employer?
Bzzzzt! WRONG. Being able to flee a company town still leaves it as a company town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
But then again, if you knew how that worked in the modern day you'd be more outraged at, say, Qatar or half of the middle east that still pulls this kind of crap ...
WTF? Is your argument that Qatar is worse so this is fine? I can have opinions about more than one thing at the same time, and who said I was outraged? They're proposing a company town and your defense is to play with the definition of company town rather than comment on it, and that says a lot.
Let me guess (Score:4, Insightful)
This would make it easier and cheaper to get things built, with fewer restrictions
Re: Let me guess (Score:3)
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no, just another post for a few rubles
Re: Let me guess (Score:2)
Re: Let me guess (Score:4, Insightful)
it's only insane to you because of your entitlement, it's common. Notice you haven't said anything about how difficult it would be to "have a permit", the most important aspect of whether to judge how "insane" it is.
A permit allows the local government to know if you are likely to engage in risky construction that may jeopardize your neighbors and burden local society. It may also give notice that you intend to do environmental damage. That's what permits are, they are processes the prevent you from doing damage to others.
And also a way for local tax authorities to take more money from you, of course. Insane? Hardly. Predicable? Totally. But go on, "SuperDre", tell us how stupid you are. Sad that the best you can do is emulate SuperKendall.
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Of course, towns don't operate for free, the sewers don't magically appear overnight, and so forth. Towns need money to build infrastructure and supply services, and you can't do that without taxes and fees. A company owned town doesn't absolve all that, and it becomes a problem for a company to also run the town as a side business.
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And the problem with that is? Here we even have to have a permit to take down a tree in my own backyard or put up a little gardenshed, talk about insane regulation.
I know! The bastards wouldn't let my build my freedom nuclear waste dump in my backyards. WAKE UP AMERICA!
That's what I was thinking... (Score:3)
Companies won't want to go through the trouble of incorporating a city unless it gets them something of greater value in return. Like less regulation. And tax revenue. Especially the tax revenue.
My guess is that SpaceX is tired of paying for all the roads and sewers and electrical infrastructure it needs to get its [not a] city to run. Why do that when there's all these [freeloading] residents there that can be taxed instead?
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There were 26 freeloading residents in Boca Chica before SpaceX moved in.
Not much of a tax base.
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At the expense of everyone else.
All of a sudden, (Score:4, Insightful)
Elon Musk now wants more government in his business.
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Not at all. He wants his business to be the government.
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That's the definition of a fascist. el Bunko is selling off the U.S. government agencies to the billionaires one bunko scheme at a time. So Elmo will be in good company.
One wonders what el Bunko's minder in the Kremlin will offer for Ukraine.
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One wonders what el Bunko's minder in the Kremlin will offer for Ukraine.
Thanks to DJT [wikipedia.org] and World Liberty Financial, there are now really great ways to just pay him off with cold, hard cash, in quantities that are mind-blowing for any but the largest corporations but nothing to foreign governments. A single policy decision he hasn't even enacted yet -- reversal of the TikTok ban -- more than doubled Trump's net worth. Putin could 10X Trump's wealth with the Kremlin's pocket change.
We need some serious anti-corruption legislation in the US. That it's even possible for a US pres
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The Congress has the power to investigate and impeach a President.
The incoming Congress isn't going to bother, because they've subjugated themselves, and abdicated their responsibilities. The GOP is a party of yes-men in service of a wannabe autocrat.
This is a mode of operation the founders did not anticipate - that 300+ members of Congress would just turn a blind eye to a President acting in bad faith. But that's what we got.
Voting down-ticket matters.
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It is a bit of a surprise, given that the founders fully understood how aristocracies worked, and how parliaments could be corrupt. I think they were blinded by their enlightenment era that a congress full of well educated men of means would all be enlightened (the word for "woke" in the day). Turns out they were all corrupt as well, even Jefferson and Madison were having spats at each other over trivial matters trying to grab power. Free speech went out the door in the first session of congress. They ne
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This is a mode of operation the founders did not anticipate - that 300+ members of Congress would just turn a blind eye to a President acting in bad faith. But that's what we got.
Yes, but Congress will only act if the people care, which was why I focused on the people. Congress has good reason to turn a blind eye to a president acting in bad faith: the knowledge that a majority of the electorate supports the president in spite of his bad acts, and that Congress will be electorally punished if they oppose him.
Until the voters decide that Trump's crimes are unacceptable, Congress will do nothing.
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That's the definition of a fascist. el Bunko is selling off the U.S. government agencies to the billionaires one bunko scheme at a time. So Elmo will be in good company.
One wonders what el Bunko's minder in the Kremlin will offer for Ukraine.
Do you feel that the alternative to “Elmo” with NASA getting spun back up at 10x the cost, only to regurgitate some warped version of Reagan’s Star Wars program so we can all be more than prepared to blow each other up from orbit while insisting there’s a nameless, faceless “enemy” out there that needs trillions of taxpayer dollars to protect against, is better?
Tell me what the definition of that is, taxpayer.
Thirty minutes to nuclear annihilation? Trips to Mars? Ain
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Billionaires have never opposed government, they oppose not BEING the government. Leona's goal is to be Putin only not in a pissant country.
Sure, incubate new ideas for governance (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe Starbase, Texas will come up with some novel ways to streamline the regulatory state. Government is just another organization, no reason it can't be improved upon.
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Ways like compulsory work, no minimum wage, no education and no health care? Just how does local government override the sovereignty of the state and federal governments?
There is indeed "no reason it can't be improved upon" depending on the definition of "it" and "improve".
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If history is to be precedent, the "streamlining" will involve a whole lot of taxpayer money being handed to the "town" (read: company) for the company to do what it wishes with. Remember when Republicans in Florida were trying to dismantle the Reedy Creek Improvement District which is basically Disney's version of this?
Why is this a good thing, if that was a bad thing? Because this is Musk, and that is Disney. And that's why this is bullshit.
Nothing says Texas... (Score:1)
...like Texas being Texas.
This WILL be approved. Mr. Musk's "we're a leavin' Caleeforniar" venture will be a city. He will be mayor without title.
Grimes and her kids be damned. Money talks, and singer songwriter walks. F the tech "billionaires".
For those who want to stand up to these tech billionaries, don't put up with their bullying ibe. They are very wealthy. So was United Heatlhcare's CEO.
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Of course it will be "approved", the law here is a procedure, it is not discretionary. This can be fought only by people refusing to work for and do business with this total piece of shit. Instead, people are greedy so they invest in the world's worst cretins, then here we are. It's pure capitalism unconstrained by decency, you know, this shit regularly cheered on by the deep thinkers at /.
Kodos and Kang watch news with keen interest (Score:2)
"I'm just waiting for them to open"
"We will strike when they claim to be the first!"
"If they claim to be the biggest, well..."
Then they see an unusual transmission, an ad for choicest cuts straight off the grille
Place our forces on high alert! Yes, NOW!
Sooner to mars the better (Score:2)
A way to sidestep legal requirements (Score:2)
On top of that Republicans will be able
Feudal Lords (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the beginning of the 21st Century Feudal Lord system.
Similar to the "Company Towns" of the past, only new and shiny.
Plus it gives Leon a method of diverting funds that the Company would be on the hook to paying to the "City" which DEFINITELY will be receiving State and Federal funding.
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This is the beginning of the 21st Century Feudal Lord system.
Lets analyze that a bit, shall we? Employees who voluntarily took a position with an American corporation that is currently not blocking the selling and ownership of property (developed or not) in the area, enabling American employees to obtain a mortgage and deed. On top of that, they are actively being encouraged to not promote the traditional Lording over power and gasoline, promoting solar power and EV transportation.
Doesn't sound like a traditional definition of feudalism at all. Let me know when El
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Plus it gives Leon a method of diverting funds that the Company would be on the hook to paying to the "City" which DEFINITELY will be receiving State and Federal funding.
If I were a betting man, I would bet that you are absolutely correct; however, your use of "Leon" rather than Elon tells me that you have a political worm in your brain and that your judgement is suspect.
Would you mind sharing with me why you and many others have taken to calling him Leon? Calling him an asshole that lacks self-awareness makes sense, calling him Leon does not.
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Trump called him Leon recently. That's all.
I do have a political worm in my brain. I choose not to support an insurrectionist, a rapist, a felon, a conman, and a psychopathic malignant narcissist. Sorry that you don't like facts? Are they "too political" for you?
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When you said this: "Trump called him Leon recently. That's all."
I felt like, "ok, this guy isn't fucking crazy".
Then you said this, "I choose not to support an insurrectionist, a rapist, a felon, a conman, and a psychopathic malignant narcissist.", and I felt ok with your mental well-being...
but then you said this: "Sorry that you don't like facts? Are they "too political" for you?"
What the fuck dude? You assume I have a position negative to yours and attack me? Fuck you. You do have a brain worm you dumba
Why is this evil somehow? (Score:2)
It's looking to get a vote to incorporate. I live in a town that incorporated 25 years ago. It got us a mayor and council and let us have tighter control over zoning, have our own police, and identify as a community. We were being controlled by county leadership that didn't care about our unique situation and allowed all sorts of poor zoning decisions, took our sales tax, and "thumbed their nose" at us. Incorporating was a great improvement. How is this democratic process evil?
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Re: Why is this evil somehow? (Score:2)
Will people be able to vote Musk out?
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There isn't anything "evil" about incorporating a new town.
Where the "evil" comes in, is when it's a company looking to incorporate the town, so they can get taxpayer funding for doing what the company wants to do, because they've filled the town council / mayor's office with company shills.
government inefficient, unless it helps musk (Score:2)
Musk and his oligarch cronies demonize government for all its frustrating regulations and frivolous application of their taxes. Suddenly, it seems, government works pretty good when it comes to taking other people's taxes and paying for infrastructure directly supporting your business.
With this scheme, SpaCEX can offload a bunch of property it no longer has to pay taxes on, yet will exclusively use. The fire department, water treatment, security, and road construction / maintenance that SpaC