Why stop at mini-apartments … what about public bedrooms?

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Over at Marginal Revolution there is talk of mini-apartments to solve the shortage of accommodation in New York City.

This is all well and good, specifically because it reminds me of this time I was standing outside a public toilet.  It was a very flash public toilet with a person sitting in a little glass office keeping an eye on everything, and I was in one of my “stare deeply and inappropriately at things” moods.  At that moment I thought “if we have public toilets, why don’t we have public beds”.

Is it inconceivable that one day we could have a world with public beds?  One where we work eight hours, do activities for another eight hours, and then wander over to a public bed facility to sleep for another eight hours.  Its a relatively dystopian view of the world, but surely its not inconceivable in areas with high population density.

If the price of housing and transportation climb significantly, and government wants to create equality of opportunity for people within large cities, wouldn’t a movement towards public beds/bedrooms make some sense?

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About Matt Nolan

Matt Nolan is an economist at Infometrics (although the opinions expressed are independent of the organisation) . Email: matt@tvhe.co.nz; nolan.matt@gmail.com; matt@infometrics.co.nz. Work phone: 04-496-5290

  • Owen

    If there is something to be done, Japan has already done it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel

  • http://www.sustento.org.nz Raf

    This “dystopian” view is simply the endpoint of capitalism. Everything and everyone becomes a commodity and so it makes absolutely sense to strip out all costs from the individual’s life: family, home, personal goods….everything can be purchased, rented or leased as part of the pure exchange economy. Mind you, we could do with a few bedroom down in Christchurch. I’m surprised “container hotels” haven’t sprung up to accommodate the EQ homeless and transient workers. 

     

    • Miguel Sanchez

      You’re surprised?  You’ve never had any dealings with local government?

      • http://www.sustento.org.nz Raf

        I try to avoid dealing with any aspect of government :-)

  • Rosa19

    i can remember reading that many Ottomen cities and towns had only public bath room’s i.e. hamam’s not private bath room’s