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Would it be different if I rented real estate that I bought with money I earned with my labor? In that case, I would say that your beef is with inheritance, not

Would it be different if I rented real estate that I bought with money I earned with my labor? In that case, I would say that your beef is with inheritance, not rent.

enriquto 6y ago
It can be parasitic or not, depending on what you do. If you inherit an expensive property in your twenties, and you stop studying and live off rent, then yes, you have become an unproductive "parasite". If, otherwise, you rent the property for a couple of years while you finish your studies and save some money for reforming it before going to live there (or sell it)... then of course you are not a parasite.
- lultimouomo 6y ago
  You didn't answer my question though. Let's say I live out of rent from my mid-30s. In the first case, it's because my rich father died and I inherited; in the second case, it's because I worked 10 years as a highly successful professional, which allowed me to buy the property. Am I a parasite in the first case? Am I a parasite in the second? Variant: am I a parasite if instead of having inherited / buying property, I inherited / bought a large amount of stock in index funds and I live off market returns?
  - enriquto 6y ago
    Doing some non-productive things in your life does not mean at all that you are a parasite. But if, at the end of your life, your contribution has been grossly negative, then I guess that you have been. Listen, I don't even think that being a small-scale parasite is a morally horrendous thing. If you are happy, that's OK, you are not really hurting anybody. I'm just very sad that all of our cities are teeming with large-scale ones!
  - kyuudou 6y ago
    You still need consumables in that example that you probably don't produce unless somehow you inherited a farm and the labor and management required to maintain it. By spending money on clean water, food, electric and whatever else you might value, you contribute to humanity in that sense, IMO.
- cyberdrunk 6y ago
  If it only were possible to tell the general impact of our actions... Maybe my vanilla open source commits will, down the road, enable Skynet. Or maybe they'll help finding a cure for cancer. Or maybe they'll have no major impact at all. There's no way of determining that.

Would it be different if I rented real estate that I bought with money I earned with my labor? In that case, I would say that your beef is with inheritance, not rent.

enriquto 6y ago

It can be parasitic or not, depending on what you do. If you inherit an expensive property in your twenties, and you stop studying and live off rent, then yes, you have become an unproductive "parasite". If, otherwise, you rent the property for a couple of years while you finish your studies and save some money for reforming it before going to live there (or sell it)... then of course you are not a parasite.

lultimouomo 6y ago
You didn't answer my question though. Let's say I live out of rent from my mid-30s. In the first case, it's because my rich father died and I inherited; in the second case, it's because I worked 10 years as a highly successful professional, which allowed me to buy the property. Am I a parasite in the first case? Am I a parasite in the second? Variant: am I a parasite if instead of having inherited / buying property, I inherited / bought a large amount of stock in index funds and I live off market returns?
- enriquto 6y ago
  Doing some non-productive things in your life does not mean at all that you are a parasite. But if, at the end of your life, your contribution has been grossly negative, then I guess that you have been. Listen, I don't even think that being a small-scale parasite is a morally horrendous thing. If you are happy, that's OK, you are not really hurting anybody. I'm just very sad that all of our cities are teeming with large-scale ones!
- kyuudou 6y ago
  You still need consumables in that example that you probably don't produce unless somehow you inherited a farm and the labor and management required to maintain it. By spending money on clean water, food, electric and whatever else you might value, you contribute to humanity in that sense, IMO.
cyberdrunk 6y ago
If it only were possible to tell the general impact of our actions... Maybe my vanilla open source commits will, down the road, enable Skynet. Or maybe they'll help finding a cure for cancer. Or maybe they'll have no major impact at all. There's no way of determining that.