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Rent A Tent, The Next Silicon Valley Startup
Featured in Zero Hedge Daniel Drew, 6/26/2015 Tweet In the modern economy, we share everything: STDs, food stamps, transportation, and housing. It's all facilitated by mobile technology. First there was Rent A Gent. Now, the next part of the sharing economy is upon us: Rent A Tent. Thanks to rampant NIMBY policies in the San Francisco Bay area, the housing market is rigged and stuck in a perpetual shortage. Hotel prices are higher than in New York and London. AirBnB rentals are hard to find, as the tech crowd is not keen on outsiders interfering with their NIMBY American dream. One man decided he wanted to monetize a tent in his Mountain View backyard - for $900 per month. About 25 people have expressed interest, with some asking to stay a month or longer.  More than 50 other tents have appeared on AirBnB in California.  In the 1930s, this sort of activity also took place - except they didn't have exciting names for it like Rent A Tent or "the sharing economy." They called them Hoovervilles, named after President Herbert Hoover.  Actually, these Hooverville structures look much more solid than the Silicon Valley tent, and they didn't cost $900. Being homeless is getting expensive. |