“I won the parent lottery, the education lottery, the country lottery,” LeBrun told Macleans. “It would be arrogant to say every piece of my ‘success’ was earned, when so much of it was received.”
Looks like he did this because he’s actually a decent reasonable person.
This is how fucking easy it is. This is a millionaire. Imagine what someone with hundreds of billions of dollars could do.
You can have a soul, or you can have billions of dollars; not both.
Imagine what WE could do if we taxed millionaires and billionaires.
We could build these in every city in the country.
Dude’s getting 20k/mo rent and helping the poor. That’s fucking awesome.
Considering utilities are included, I doubt he gets much of that
When the time comes we let this one unbothered
I applaud the project but I’d still eat him. He is a near billionaire CEO throwing a few scraps to us commoners. Maybe his PR team can make me look good too as I go for seconds.
He gets a pass in my book. Maybe he did it because he wanted to be spared in the future.
We can pretend to eat him while we distribute his wealth.
Based
These units may be basically sheds, but I’ve seen people pay half a million to have the same thing three floors up in central London.
If I was homeless I’d take solid four walls the size of a medium-sized tent if it meant warmth, utility services, your own toilet and anything else I’d need to even be able to focus on caring for myself or even others more than merely survive. Those tiny buildings might be the minimum, but they ARE something you can call a safe home.
I’m wondering though, how was this more cost-effective to build than a long apartment complex…? Do those tiny things not need any concrete foundation, perhaps regulatory stuff…?
Looking at the video, they’re basically trailers. How much does it take to set up a trailer park? Fill a base with concrete, slap in some plumbing and electrical points. Probably quite economical to do it all in one go.
I suspect the most expensive part is the land in most places. Looks like this town has plenty of room around it. Probably costs a bit to heat them though, being where it is.
And I got to be honest, a small separate home looks a lot nicer to live in than an apartment building. Especially if it’s built from wood like these are. Being able to hear constant noise from 10 other people around you just walking about is not for me.
There are ways to build apartment complexes rather sound-proof, however probably not as economically. Just hope the long-term costs of these tiny houses won’t eat up any savings; at least in terms of energy everyone got solar panels, that should offset the probably rather weak insulation.
Imagine if the public sector did this and didn’t limit it to a single development.
We could even build bigger-than-tiny sized units. Maybe include additional amenities like schools and health clinics and food malls in the immediate vicinity. Throw in a rail stop so people can get to the metro center easily. You know… actual urban development.
No idea where we could get money for that, though. Maybe if Canada didn’t exempt 50% of capital gains income from taxation for some reason… But no, that would never work.
My city built a bunch of these, but they are 10 ft x 10 ft pods. Hundreds of them. We still have 5-6,000 homeless living on the street. Our county has been handing out free tents for 8 years and guess what, didn’t help.
Our county has been handing out free tents for 8 years and guess what, didn’t help.
I mean, tents help keep the rain and the wind off you. It helps in so far as any amount of camping gear is going to help. But its not solving homelessness unless you classify rough outdoor living as a solution.
Also…
you’re paddling against the current if you’re handing out tents in a city where the police pounce on homeless encampments and tear them up.
Feels like now is the best time for other nations to have low capital gains taxes. No?
“The word ‘philanthropy’ is often interpreted as someone who gives money,” he told the alumni magazine.
“But the Greek roots of the word ‘philos’ and ‘anthropos’ mean to love humans. What I have discovered is spending money is the easy thing, spending yourself is the hard thing. The 12 Neighbours project is how I can best spend myself.”yl
I’m not crying, you’re crying… Sniff
I also liked this:
“We have people who have been run over by trauma, by substance abuse, by all of these things,” LeBrun told Macleans. “It’s about excavating that person, buried under their circumstances, little by little.”
Seems like a decent dude.
I like this part as well:
“I won the parent lottery, the education lottery, the country lottery,” LeBrun told Macleans. “It would be arrogant to say every piece of my ‘success’ was earned, when so much of it was received.”
Someone must be cutting onions. Let’s add them to the billionaire stew.
Honestly when I see “tech millionaire” and “altruism” in the same article, I expect to seese seriously ghoulish shit.
I still have concerns around the long-term outcome - the land is ostensibly still privately held, and I assume the homes are as well. I’d like to
It said former, he sold his business 14 years ago and looks like he doesn’t work in tech anymore.
Did you forget to finish that last sentence before you hit post ?
Yeah I was kind of working on a long effort post in Jerboa over the course of my day, which is already risky since it doesn’t save drafts, but I think somehow switching apps resulted in my posting three times to this thread when I had not intended to post anything at all yet.
So now there are three comments from me on this thread, this one, another without the partial sentence at all, and one completely blank.
Looks goofy as hell but I’m gonna leave them up anyway.
Worst case the business will forcibly close due to lack of rent payments, though, right?
Or he is doing millionaire thing and looking for new kidney.
As long as he pays, capitalism lives on
This is really great to see. So glad there are people like this out there willing to extend empathy to people who are struggling. I love that this project also respects their clients’ autonomy as well. The fact that you don’t have to stay sober to be there, I think it’s great. Just give someone a stable roof over their head, a small support network, and I believe they can turn around their addictions and their lives.
Remember, theres a gigantic difference between the wealth of a billionaire and the wealth of a millionaire. For one thing, its possible to make a million without harming others, a BILLION though, you HAVE to sacrifice others to achieve.
The difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is about a billion dollars
While the guy happened to manage to acquire almost $400 million by selling his company, it seems that he’s really trying to do some good with that, quite frankly, ridiculous amount of money.
Also it seems that his employees were compensated somewhat above market rate while he owned the company.
Not exactly a dragon of his own making, we shall observe his career with great interest to see if he follows what seems to be his chosen path, as of now.
On paper, sure. But I might argue that the process of accruing paper wealth as a backstop against misfortune and a reserve during retirement is inherently deleterious - forcing people to forego quality of life in the immediate term as a hedge against the future. This is a highly inefficient process for individuals to manage - who carry the whole cost of an incidental risk/exceptionally long life. And it is the whole reason public pensions and public insurance came to exist.
That’s before you get into the moral hazard of certain professions and fortunate individuals being predisposed towards retirement, while others work right up until their dying days.
Rent pricing is what the people should target first. Hard to fight the nutjobs when rent is so expensive
Simply approving more housing helps too https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-everything/
Building more housing helps, but building new housing will remain expensive for as long as land is expensive, so it’s vital that we avoid wasting land. Which means density.
Some people read “density” and think “ah, taller buildings!”, but that’s only half the picture - you can save tremendous amounts of space by improving horizontal density - look at how dense OP’s one storey housing is, by shrinking the houses, and by ditching the front yard and dedicated sidewalks.
Except, most of the space is still empty! Those streets are oversized (take a look at traditional cities, most streets are under 20ft wide (6m wide) wall-to-wall), and the houses all have gaps next to them which look big enough to fit (or almost fit) another house. So you could easily more-than-double the density without even going up, assuming the housing isn’t car-centric (I’m guessing those empty spots might be car parks, and the streets are overly wide because they’re for cars).
If this sounds nitpicky, it’s not: building one-storey houses is dirt cheap; imagine trying to make a portable two-storey tent. It even makes it realistically possible to remove developers from the equation, without too much going horribly wrong. It just needs to be efficient with the land it uses.
240sqft = 22.3sqm
look at how dense OP’s one storey housing is, by shrinking the houses, and by ditching the front yard and dedicated sidewalks.
What the actual fuck are these suggestions. This sounds a lot like the conservative members of my area that argue homeless people don’t deserve anything. They want to cram the all into one building with no privacy, get rid of sidewalks and green spaces because people loiter, and generally make life as uncomfortable as possible for the destitute instead of treating them like normal human beings.
For reference, your standard wheelchair accessible hotel room will not be less than 20sqm.
approving more housing is like realizing that hey maybe i should stop actively hammering the splinter into my toe!
i mean yeah, you should do that, but if that’s the point we’re at maybe it’s time to start screaming about it rather than going “man this situation is suboptimal”
Elon Musk would never lol. He could do so much good with his money but he just chooses not to. Has he built a library? A park? A school? Literally anything?
Didn’t you know empathy is a sin and weakness…
Can’t believe he said that shit.
Something something he could’ve ended world hunger, but chose not to.
He twisted and parroted the words of someone else. Fucker’s absolutely incapable of original thought or actual creation
He’s a billionaire. Id be surprised if he said otherwise.
Since you asked according to Wikipedia the Musk Foundation has given $50 million to st Judes, although Musk and his foundation have been criticized for their low payouts.
He also promised to solve world hunger if given a plan and when the UN gave him a plan, he backed out.
Thanks for looking, like honestly. At least he’s done something I guess.
This is fine, but millionaires won’t save us
This could be pointed to as a successful test case to get the gov off it’s ass and implement this at a macro level.
You are correct millionaires will not save us, however we should reward behavior we want to see. Lest we get more billionaires who are a net drag on society.
How though. Anti taxers would point out that it should be an 8 story concrete apartment building for maximum return of government investment, but no increase in taxes, any concerned official is left fighting politically for leftover funds to slowly build up in an account to initiate the project, and then they loose an election and the next guy uses it on fancy jewlery for his mistress.
Even just getting one building off the ground and they’ll be eviscerated for not using economies of scale. Building ten at the same time and a slight cost overrun which always happens is multiplied by ten.
Sorry for my pessimistic rant.
I really don’t like that you got downvoted so much for this. You are not wrong, that is the anti-taxer take, and your exposure to those who might not be aware contributes to the discussion in a meaningful way. I don’t know or care if you’re anti-tax I just know you brought up well thought-out points relevant to the conversation and I don’t like seeing the upside down vote count.
Thank you
I’m not anti tax. Just had to deal with somebody’s temper tantrum that school taxes are theft.
He did actually save those homeless people.
I don’t think it’s possible to amass “millions” as an executive, while giving fair payments to everyone down the chain.
Sure, but let’s pretend this one hasn’t done significantly more than others.
Absolutely, but it is food seeing some people who actually use their money for something good.
They could, but they won’t.
Maybe if they all teamed up and were organized to do so. But a tiny handful of billionaires control as much wealth as the millionaires. It’s much harder for a class to voluntarily do good than for a small handful of people. That’s why society needs to step in, tax them, and distribute to projects as needed.
Back during the gilded age and earlier it was common for wealthy individuals to found public services like hospitals and schools partly because these services were unlikely to exist without a wealthy benefactor to create them, so they’d found them with their own family and friends in mind first, but also as a hedge on helping improve their public image as the lack of any protections for the working class created literal battles between the working class and mercenaries hired by the owning class
Honestly when I see “tech millionaire” and “altruism” in the same article, I don’t expect to see someone actually using their wealth to do something decent.
Millionaires still have their humanity on occasion.
