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Rent is theft (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
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[–] 28 points 9 months ago (10 children)

Should hotels be illegal too? That’s basically renting out a room by the day. What if you cannot afford to buy a house, or only want to live somewhere temporarily? If you cannot rent any place to live, what would you do?

As with most things, it is a matter of degree.

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  • [–] 35 points 9 months ago (9 children)

    Should hotels be illegal too?

    If they're monopolizing the housing market, absolutely.

    What if you cannot afford to buy a house

    There are 16M vacant homes to distribute among around 770k homeless people. With such an enormous housing surplus, why is the clearing price for a housing unit so far above a new prospective buyer's budget?

    You posit that people can't afford to buy homes without asking why homes are unaffordable.

    Investors accounted for 25.7% of residential home sales in 2024.

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Investors accounted for 25.7% of residential home sales in 2024.

    In that article, the word "investors" is deliberately lumping together individuals, and institutions/corporations, in an obvious attempt to trick people into thinking that category is comprised entirely of the latter. Underhanded semantic maneuver. Within the same article:

    While large institutional investors continue to get most of the headlines in the single-family rental space, small investors account for more than 90% of the market.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago

    the word “investors” is deliberately lumping together individuals, and institutions/corporations, in an obvious attempt to trick people into thinking that category is comprised entirely of the latter.

    Corporations are people, my friend.

    Underhanded semantic maneuver.

    Is ownership less virtuous in a partnership than a sole proprietorship somehow?

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    If they’re monopolizing the housing market, absolutely.

    I think there's a middle ground between 'consuming all housing stock in hopes of making airbnbs' and 'illegal'. There's a legitimate case for short term and medium term residence that doesn't make sense with ownership. However while we should accommodate those, it is a fair point the market should be regulated so that people have a reasonable path to ownership if it makes sense without being stuck with competing with rent-seeking corporations sucking up all the inventory.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    There’s a legitimate case for short term and medium term residence that doesn’t make sense with ownership.

    Sure. Neither case requires speculative investors to enter the market and maximize profits.

    You're confusing physical infrastructure with rent seeking bureaucracy.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    I merely pointed out that not all ‘rent is bad’, ‘landlords are evil’.

    Among probably many reasons that housing is unaffordable for many is that some persons or corporations are awful scumbags that want to maximize their profit beyond what is reasonable or fair.

    Renting isn’t bad. Capitalism isn’t bad. Abuse of these things is bad.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

    All rent is bad and all forms of landlords are evil. They are a separate class with legal mandate to steal the labor value of the working class. They serve no function whatsoever and it is entirely conceivable that an apartment building's occupants could pool money together for repairs when that is necessary.

    Shelter is a human right. Housing is a human right. Landlords are not mechanics, they are not repair men, they are not construction workers, they are not laborers. Some Landlords may do some of those things, but it doesn't change the fact that by virtue of stealing from the working class they are still evil. If they want to do repair work, I should be able to simply pay them for the repair work they do. If they want to do property maintenance work, I should be able to simply pay them for the property maintenance. They have a legal document enabling them to steal half of my income every month for no reason. They do not live in my home, I live in my home. If I stopped living there it wouldn't be my home anymore.

    There are 0 downsides to entirely rejecting the housing market. Housing is a human right, it should be fairly distributed to everyone. I couldn't give a fuck about real estate markets, they could all dissappear today and no one would ever profit off of housing again and not a single tear would be shed. I'd really like it if everyone could have a fucking home. All Landlords are evil. There are NO exceptions. If they collect rent for someone else's home, they are evil.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    If I own a house that is too big for me, and I can’t afford the taxes and upkeep, so I rent out some rooms to make a little money.

    I am now a landlord. Are you suggesting that I am evil? That it should not be allowed?

    I think you are conflating slum lords and greedy corporations with any and all people who have rental properties. Something, something… deals in absolutes.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    You are not a landlord if you are sharing your home, you would be a roommate. If you are charging them rent, then yes you are a landlord :) no should ever profit off of housing! Housing is a human right! No one should ever have to sleep in your home, everyone should be able to have their own shelter that belongs to them! This is an absolutely conceivable reality homelessness is entirely a manufactured byproduct of capitalism. We have millions of empty homes and wasted infrastructure that could be used to house people.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago

    I merely pointed out that not all ‘rent is bad’, ‘landlords are evil

    I think we're a bit beyond good and evil.

    Renting isn’t bad. Capitalism isn’t bad. Abuse of these things is bad.

    Sure sure sure. Love the sin, hate the sinner.

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