4 ms·

It's because the system is broken to begin with. Landlords usually provide little value compared to what they ask for and for a lot of them, it's essentially p

It's because the system is broken to begin with. Landlords usually provide little value compared to what they ask for and for a lot of them, it's essentially passive income, an investment if you want, but one that is basic survival for others. The US should not be having a homelessness crisis. We have more empty places than homeless. The same way I personally believe Nestle or anyone else should not be trying to commodify drinking water beyond the "utility" grade. If you want an expanded look at this line of reasoning, I can recommend Thought Slime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2EWQ4v9wbA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2EWQ4v9wbA

tuna-piano 6y ago
Thought experiment for you: Evictions become much more difficult, maybe even illegal. What happens to people who want to rent apartments?
- sascha_sl 6y ago
  Goes right past my comment. I don't want apartments owned by people for any other than their personal use to begin with because the profit motive incentivizes bad behavior and is inflexible in handling situations like Covid.
  - tuna-piano 6y ago
    So you believe that buying a house should be legal, selling a house should be legal, but renting a house should be illegal? Or you believe all land+buildings should be government owned? And you believe the government should have a monopoly on buying/renting houses? And how would government renting houses be different than landlords? If the government wanted to give rent flexibility they can do it other ways besides owning the houses.
    - sascha_sl 6y ago
      I don't have all the answers, but the current system cannot continue and needs to find a way to treat housing more as a public or heavily regulated utility with no profit motive. I'm also fine with incremental change. We can start by moving ownership of unused decrepit housing to a public body that transfers based on real occupancy. Essentially expanding adverse possession.

tuna-piano 6y ago

Thought experiment for you: Evictions become much more difficult, maybe even illegal. What happens to people who want to rent apartments?

sascha_sl 6y ago
Goes right past my comment. I don't want apartments owned by people for any other than their personal use to begin with because the profit motive incentivizes bad behavior and is inflexible in handling situations like Covid.
- tuna-piano 6y ago
  So you believe that buying a house should be legal, selling a house should be legal, but renting a house should be illegal? Or you believe all land+buildings should be government owned? And you believe the government should have a monopoly on buying/renting houses? And how would government renting houses be different than landlords? If the government wanted to give rent flexibility they can do it other ways besides owning the houses.
  - sascha_sl 6y ago
    I don't have all the answers, but the current system cannot continue and needs to find a way to treat housing more as a public or heavily regulated utility with no profit motive. I'm also fine with incremental change. We can start by moving ownership of unused decrepit housing to a public body that transfers based on real occupancy. Essentially expanding adverse possession.