Loan sharking is not extortion, and neither is the renting of property. Let's not confuse our terms here. Extortion is unrelated to either of those activities.

Loan sharking is not extortion, and neither is the renting of property. Let's not confuse our terms here. Extortion is unrelated to either of those activities. The premise of your argument fundamentally rests on the idea that these landlords are choosing to charge "70% of their income to let them live at a shithole". But is that true? Do the landlords have much of a choice in this matter? We can see with a simple thought experiment. What would happen if they were to lower their rents? I'll tell you. They'd get more customers. Their vacancies would quickly be filled, because they'd be cheaper than the 'shithole' next door. And if they are already full, then all they'd need to do is keep building new shitholes until they can take all their competitors tenants too. So, then. The obvious question: Why doesn't this happen? Why don't all these slumlords recognize this obvious opportunity for massive profit? Why don't you or I build a shithole of our own and charge only 60% of people's income? And the answer is simple: Running shitholes costs 69% of the income of those monthly tenants. Charge any less and you're losing money. If you do not believe this to be the case, then by all means, start your own shithole and charge less. Let me know how that works out for you.