[verylittlemeat]

Captains of industry who liked to play simcity in real life were not unusual for the time. One of the worst strikes in American history started over "company town" issues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike

This is really the ongoing story of organized labor vs their corporate overlords. If you want to see real interviews and video from what living in company town with secret police is like check out the documentary Harlan County, USA.

[TomMarius]

Yes. Czech entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa (there is pretty good chance you're wearing shoes with his name right now) founded a whole city (not a town, a pretty big city for its time).