Early Retirement Extreme Forums

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/14/g ... risis-fix/

Tsk tsk tsk. Sounds like some folks in Google should start talking to their van-dweller employees (or promote one) to better address the cost of housing for employees.

This solution sounds like a shift towards company housing (e.g. coal, oil). Why not go whole hog and make a company town? I trust Google more than Oil/Coal companies given their employees are generally happy. I think Google is not being very imaginative.

Is it the time to set up an ERE coop in the Bay Area? I think the Bay Area is a really great choice for an ERE city if you can find a housing solution. It's been in my head for at least a couple years to have a piece of property and a business that caters to van-dwellers. I have to think that Google and other tech companies would support such an organization similarly to how they support various other efforts in the area.

(Probably not) coincidentally Bezos tweeted expressing interest in supporting something like what I propose: https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/875418348598603776

(Probably) coincidentally Mary's Place is one of the few charities I've ever donated too.

I don't think the bay is an ERE place, more FIRE then leave retirement to work more. Work is too ingrained in the culture.

What inspires you to see the Bay as ERE friendly?

Well, ideal place to live is quite subjective and it depends on what kind of life you want. As far as an ERE city goes, I don't really know the cities on the wiki page but there seems to be some bias I'm not happy with.

Other than the cost of rent, a diverse city has everything to offer and plenty that agrees with a ERE/MMM lifestyles. As far as atmosphere you just have to get a feel for it and look to its historical influences. Are there any concerns other than rent? Of course you can't own property cheaply (if you wanted to have some domain for farming or something..). Also basically ignoring raising a family (just haven't considered it; at the least it would be harder to hack rent).

> Work is too ingrained in the culture.

Interesting you see it this way. I don't see anything wrong with being productive after retirement. Anyway I don't care so much about what others do, just what I do and if it works (for instance having some critical mass of community). In the Bay Area you basically have a critical mass of people for whatever you want to do. One of my initial complaints about the area was that there are too many people interested in various things such that the niche communities I was used to being a part of (bicycling, dancing, odd things, etc) were huge, not out of the ordinary.

work in the Bay Area is ingrained in the culture, but more as a vision/fun thing, not in the east coast way of hustling for money. of course Bay Area humans love to make money, but it feels different.