Google as a landlord? A looming feudal nightmare | Veena Dubal

To fight a housing crunch of their own creation, tech companies are planning company towns worthy of Gilded Age robber barons

Much contemporary criticism of Google focuses on the invisibility of the company's vast monopoly power and the consequent indifference of both everyday consumers and government regulators. In ways that we rarely stop to acknowledge, much less understand, the tech giant's digital domination shapes everything from the profitability of individual corporate enterprise to our consumption and communication practices.

Soon, however, as Google expands its geographic footprint beyond the digital world into physical urban spaces, the potential impacts of the company's unchecked powers may become both obvious and intolerable. This year alone the tech giant will spend $13bn expanding in 24 US cities. In some places, the company will bring not just jobs but entire campuses with fully equipped offices, data centers, retail spaces and even residences.