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The fundamental issue isn't whether or not people "automatically get rich", it's whether we want to incentivize behaviors that harm everyone at all. The lowest

The fundamental issue isn't whether or not people "automatically get rich", it's whether we want to incentivize behaviors that harm everyone at all. The lowest earners are disproportionately harmed by this[1]. People who rent their homes aren't the only ones harmed. People buying a home are also harmed, because they're competing with people who are buying houses to rent out, which drives up the price. And the game is rigged: if you are buying/renting a home to live in, you're operating under the various constraints of your life: you can't wait for more favorable prices without going homeless, you can't buy in arbitrary locations because you need to be where you can work, where kids can go to school, etc.; a buyer buying to be a landlord is not operating under these constraints. A landlord literally doesn't have to provide any value: they just own the home and get paid to do nothing. When someone pretends they can't work because of disability to leech off society we put them in jail for fraud, but a landlord doesn't even have to pretend they can't work. [1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/assessing-the-severity-of-rent-burden-on-low-income-families-20171222.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/asse...

perl4ever 6y ago
I'm trying to figure out what your point is and if you disagree with me about anything. Originally I thought you were saying all the rent money you pay is free money for your landlord. The point of my comment was, no it's not. The amount you should expect to make on owning an apartment for doing nothing is very close to zero. If 3.5% sounds like a large amount, (I'm not clear if you think so or if you think that's a wrong figure or what) that's before taxes, before inflation, and subject to property value going up or down. I kind of take for granted that the social purpose of financial markets is to reduce economic profits towards zero to the greatest possible extent. There is no question that it's generally a bad thing for people to be paid for doing nothing. With interest rates as they are, it seems like we have the closest approach to zero profits in the entire history of the universe, at least in the developed world. How much more can you ask for?
- kerkeslager 6y ago
  I can ask that we as a society enable people to purchase their own homes. Given around 40% of Americans rent their homes, 3.5% profit is clearly enough to incentivize rent-seeking.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    "Rent seeking" doesn't literally mean "seeking rent", so when people use it to condemn rent in general, it's just meaningless. It's a technical term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

perl4ever 6y ago

I'm trying to figure out what your point is and if you disagree with me about anything. Originally I thought you were saying all the rent money you pay is free money for your landlord. The point of my comment was, no it's not. The amount you should expect to make on owning an apartment for doing nothing is very close to zero. If 3.5% sounds like a large amount, (I'm not clear if you think so or if you think that's a wrong figure or what) that's before taxes, before inflation, and subject to property value going up or down. I kind of take for granted that the social purpose of financial markets is to reduce economic profits towards zero to the greatest possible extent. There is no question that it's generally a bad thing for people to be paid for doing nothing. With interest rates as they are, it seems like we have the closest approach to zero profits in the entire history of the universe, at least in the developed world. How much more can you ask for?

kerkeslager 6y ago
I can ask that we as a society enable people to purchase their own homes. Given around 40% of Americans rent their homes, 3.5% profit is clearly enough to incentivize rent-seeking.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  "Rent seeking" doesn't literally mean "seeking rent", so when people use it to condemn rent in general, it's just meaningless. It's a technical term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking