Musk Needs To Move Twitter Out of San Francisco

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Another day, another “Elon Musk Is the Worst Person In the World” story. This time it involves Musk turning some of the Twitter office spaces into bedrooms to accommodate employees working long hours.

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San Francisco authorities, never ones to let a made-up crisis go to waste, announced they would be inspecting Musk’s office for building code violations. Musk and most other observant Americans noted in order to do so, those inspectors would have to wade through the legions of homeless passed out in public spaces next to their own feces and drug paraphernalia.

Drugs, bodily fluids, crime rings and human carnage lining the streets day after day? Perfectly fine, nothing to see here. Employer trying to help his employees do their jobs efficiently and comfortably? Something must be done!

Musk is only doing a more pronounced version of what most tech companies in the San Francisco area already do. By now we’re all familiar with Google’s famous nap pods. Twitter had them too. What is the difference between a room with a nap pod in it and a room with a bed in it? Surely not enough to warrant the city pulling resources to go dismantle them.

It’s just another attempt to punish Musk for daring to flout the progressive line. He should get used to it. It will never end. He’s taken away a good chunk of the fuel that runs their censorship engine, and they will never forgive him for it. He should prepare for years of this type of bullying.

Of course, what Musk should really do is move out of San Francisco altogether, and not just for ideological reasons. There’s a reason for all those nap pods and fancy cafeterias and dry-cleaning services on site. Life there is expensive, and many people who work in the city can’t afford to live in the city. Commute times are long, parking is convoluted and expensive. Giving employees amenities in the workplace reduces the amount of time they have to commute or take off work to satifsy life’s daily issues.

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A 2019 article from The San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the plight of many city police officers who are forced to sleep in their cars because the cost of living is too high on a law enforcement salary, and commuting during rush hours can be as long as 2.5 hours each way. The city has also grappled with a years-long teacher shortage because of the same problems.

Musk’s bedroom solution is a band-aid on a gunshot wound. For the company to truly succeed, it needs to turn profits, which he is obviously aware of, more so than middle-class opinion writer at a conservative website. But it’s going to take more than increased ad revenue and charging for blue checks. It’s going to take savings, and a location that can be amenable to commuters and entry-level tech workers just starting out in the business. San Francisco has been hemmorhaging businesses for a reason. It is simply impossible to grow there. Musk is shrinking the operation for now, but when it’s time to expand again, the workforce will include all the restraints of the Bay area’s one-of-a-kind commuting boondoggle.

There’s also the issue of the culture at Twitter, which Musk is determined to change. He’s off to a tremendous start. Nothing makes a point like firing every unnecessarily-employed leech on day one. It will take much more than that, however. Part of Twitter’s problem, and Big Tech’s in general, is that it is located in the most progressive city, in the most progressive state in the union. The company culture reflects the geography. If he wants employees who put the business above their petty politics, he’s going to have to be in a place where those people exist. There aren’t many of them in San Francisco, and that’s not a controversial statement.

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I’m not suggesting Musk move the company to Texas, as he has done with some of his SpaceX operations. Although, it would be fun to watch the left melt down over such a move. Frankly, it really doesn’t matter where he moves. He could move to another liberal state and probably automatically improve company culture ten-fold. The culture of San Francisco is hopelessly corrupt, and ridiculously expensive. There is no prosperity to be found there for a struggling company that’s been propped up by Democrat donors and backroom political deals for years. Musk has neither the Democrat donors nor their favor.

Twitter needs to move headquarters, and the sooner, the better.

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