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On the other side of the equation (at least regarding real estate), it can be difficult to make money from poor people without extremely low costs and tremendou

On the other side of the equation (at least regarding real estate), it can be difficult to make money from poor people without extremely low costs and tremendous scale. There is a reason many landlords refuse to accept Section 8 tenants. It's not because they're evil Scrooges, it's that Section 8 tenants are more likely to damage properties (I've heard firsthand accounts of Section 8 tenants letting their multiple dogs piss and shit on the floor while refusing to pay several months of back rent and utility bills, and others letting their units turn into such trash heaps that delousing was a regular occurance) and vacuum up administrative time. So the rent has to be high for the landlords to be able to make a profit. Maybe we could stop blaming the market for doing what it does and recognize that the economy and the livelihood of people is largely determined by government policy? Bring back the Works Progress Administration. Pay people to show up and work. I know it's unrelated to the article, but as long as private employers have little competition for wages, poor people will continually be forced to accept their place in a race to the bottom.

Masacore 10y ago
I agree 100% The article (I'm not sure about the book) painted landlords as evil for evicting women "Think of that next time you ask a woman why she doesn't call the police," but Crack doesn't come out of walls easily, holes punched in by that abusive man aren't fixed for free, and cops making an arrest care even less about your property than the tenants. There are insanely high cost to renting to low-wage families and most landlords I know that attempted it didn't last long doing so. Are there some sad stories of people truly trying to improve their lives? Yes, there absolutely are, but for every "Pursuit of Happyness" Oprah level story of overcoming poverty there are 20 people who've absolutely given up and don't give a crap about anything that's not physically attached to them. It's not the business owner's responsibility to try and spur the human spirit of the impoverished. This article is painting just a skewed of a viewpoint as the one it's trying to disprove, and I'm curious if the book is the same.
- steven777400 10y ago
  To affirm your anecdote, I had a friend who bought a fourplex in a somewhat depressed area, lived in one unit and rented the other three. It was an unmitigated disaster and a terrible experience. I spent some time with him trying to help out around the units and also discussed his experiences with him. I concluded from that I would never, under any circumstances, want to be a landlord.

Masacore 10y ago

I agree 100% The article (I'm not sure about the book) painted landlords as evil for evicting women "Think of that next time you ask a woman why she doesn't call the police," but Crack doesn't come out of walls easily, holes punched in by that abusive man aren't fixed for free, and cops making an arrest care even less about your property than the tenants. There are insanely high cost to renting to low-wage families and most landlords I know that attempted it didn't last long doing so. Are there some sad stories of people truly trying to improve their lives? Yes, there absolutely are, but for every "Pursuit of Happyness" Oprah level story of overcoming poverty there are 20 people who've absolutely given up and don't give a crap about anything that's not physically attached to them. It's not the business owner's responsibility to try and spur the human spirit of the impoverished. This article is painting just a skewed of a viewpoint as the one it's trying to disprove, and I'm curious if the book is the same.

steven777400 10y ago
To affirm your anecdote, I had a friend who bought a fourplex in a somewhat depressed area, lived in one unit and rented the other three. It was an unmitigated disaster and a terrible experience. I spent some time with him trying to help out around the units and also discussed his experiences with him. I concluded from that I would never, under any circumstances, want to be a landlord.