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If there were 500 million homes in the US and all 500 million were owned by one corporation who rented them out to the population, would you say the solution is

If there were 500 million homes in the US and all 500 million were owned by one corporation who rented them out to the population, would you say the solution is: A. Build more houses (and cross your fingers that the corporation doesn’t snatch those up too) B. Criminalize renting to some degree

civilized 5y ago
If the corporation is making that much money from its renting monopoly then the developer should just keep the property it builds and rent it out. If five developers do this, you'll start to see price competition and prices will go down. The rich hoarders and speculators will get screwed badly. As they should be. Except... they will beg the government to do something, tell some heart-rending narrative about those nasty rich developers, the government will do something, and they'll get to stay rich. I may see a different villain here than you do.
- jimbob45 5y ago
  I don’t think you’re wrong that there’s a solution that the free market would provide (maybe not yours but I’m a believer in the invisible hand). However, that’s no good for preventing another situation like this in the long-run and there’s no benefit to allowing renting other than destroying the environment and shifting some bank account numbers. This is all separate from high-efficiency renting (i.e. apartments) because that uses the land well.
  - civilized 5y ago
    What are you talking about? You just described a situation that has never happened. Nothing remotely like it has ever happened in a free market country. And now we need to prevent "another" situation like this in the long run? I'm so confused.
    - kennywinker 5y ago
      Monopolies have never happened in the US? Tell that to Standard Oil.
      - civilized 5y ago
        So because there was an oil monopoly around 1900, we need to prevent a "similar" housing monopoly in 2021? No, I stand by my post. Nothing remotely like the situation you describe has ever happened. It is not the case that, because an oil monopoly happened in 1900, we need to be hypervigilant to hypothetical monopolies in other industries where nothing remotely like that has ever happened.
        kennywinker 5y ago
        Before the rise of the Chicago school approach to antitrust, government regularly took action to prevent monopolization. Oddly enough, the size of the world's largest corporations has been skyrocketing in that same period. So yes - we should be hypervigilant to hypothetical monopolies in every industry - especially when we have governments decidedly uninterested in preventing them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Rise_of_the_Chicago_School_(1970s%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Ri...
        civilized 5y ago
        Okay, you want to talk about monopoly. You don't want to talk about housing. Fine, whatever. But don't pretend your ideas have anything to do with actually helping the cause of affordable housing.
    - jimbob45 5y ago
      That’s exactly what’s happening now: housing prices have exploded and corporations are choosing to rent inventory out instead, especially via AirBNB because that makes them more money. Chinese foreigners are snapping up properties at high rates. Zillow buys out entire areas now to raise prices. Meanwhile the American citizenry with humble dreams of one day owning a house feels their dreams drift farther and farther out because some people won’t acknowledge that there’s even a problem. Others want to reward these corporations by building more inventory.
imtringued 5y ago
>B. Criminalize renting to some degree You mean anti monopoly laws? Let them pay monopoly taxes if their market share is bigger than 50% in any given city.

civilized 5y ago

If the corporation is making that much money from its renting monopoly then the developer should just keep the property it builds and rent it out. If five developers do this, you'll start to see price competition and prices will go down. The rich hoarders and speculators will get screwed badly. As they should be. Except... they will beg the government to do something, tell some heart-rending narrative about those nasty rich developers, the government will do something, and they'll get to stay rich. I may see a different villain here than you do.

jimbob45 5y ago
I don’t think you’re wrong that there’s a solution that the free market would provide (maybe not yours but I’m a believer in the invisible hand). However, that’s no good for preventing another situation like this in the long-run and there’s no benefit to allowing renting other than destroying the environment and shifting some bank account numbers. This is all separate from high-efficiency renting (i.e. apartments) because that uses the land well.
- civilized 5y ago
  What are you talking about? You just described a situation that has never happened. Nothing remotely like it has ever happened in a free market country. And now we need to prevent "another" situation like this in the long run? I'm so confused.
  - kennywinker 5y ago
    Monopolies have never happened in the US? Tell that to Standard Oil.
    - civilized 5y ago
      So because there was an oil monopoly around 1900, we need to prevent a "similar" housing monopoly in 2021? No, I stand by my post. Nothing remotely like the situation you describe has ever happened. It is not the case that, because an oil monopoly happened in 1900, we need to be hypervigilant to hypothetical monopolies in other industries where nothing remotely like that has ever happened.
      - kennywinker 5y ago
        Before the rise of the Chicago school approach to antitrust, government regularly took action to prevent monopolization. Oddly enough, the size of the world's largest corporations has been skyrocketing in that same period. So yes - we should be hypervigilant to hypothetical monopolies in every industry - especially when we have governments decidedly uninterested in preventing them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Rise_of_the_Chicago_School_(1970s%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law#Ri...
        civilized 5y ago
        Okay, you want to talk about monopoly. You don't want to talk about housing. Fine, whatever. But don't pretend your ideas have anything to do with actually helping the cause of affordable housing.
  - jimbob45 5y ago
    That’s exactly what’s happening now: housing prices have exploded and corporations are choosing to rent inventory out instead, especially via AirBNB because that makes them more money. Chinese foreigners are snapping up properties at high rates. Zillow buys out entire areas now to raise prices. Meanwhile the American citizenry with humble dreams of one day owning a house feels their dreams drift farther and farther out because some people won’t acknowledge that there’s even a problem. Others want to reward these corporations by building more inventory.

imtringued 5y ago

>B. Criminalize renting to some degree You mean anti monopoly laws? Let them pay monopoly taxes if their market share is bigger than 50% in any given city.