4 ms·
Voting is by person, not by land parcel. Just ask landlords in Seattle how it goes when the renters have more political power than the landlords.
by criley2 5y ago
Voting is by person, not by land parcel. Just ask landlords in Seattle how it goes when the renters have more political power than the landlords.
- kaesar14 5y agoWhen is renters having more political power than landlords a bad thing?
- rblatz 5y agoWhen you are a landlord for instance.
- selectodude 5y agoSounds like owning huge amounts of property concentrated in a single area gives you some counterparty risk you should consider.
- kaesar14 5y agoAnd that the financial power this gives you as a class needs to be countered by political power in your opposition.
- criley2 5y agoWho said it's a good OR bad thing? This is a discussion of who has the power, not the ethics of the power. Having said that, I think the current balance in some places can be harmful because there is a non-insignificant number of tenants who stopped paying rent simply because the eviction moratorium means they can enjoy the property for free. When questioned they say "investments have risks ". This leads a number of landlords to jack up credit requirements or let properties stay empty, exacerbating supply problems.
- xanaxagoras 5y agoWhen the renters are a collection of screeching children who want to defund the police.
- ModernMech 5y agoVoting is by person, but money is speech, and one side has a lot more speech to influence voting patterns than the other.
- klyrs 5y agoVoting is one sort of power. Many see rent-seeking as a form of regressive taxation; setting of tax rates is another form of power. Landlords, in this situation, are kinda like middle management. While they don't have absolute power, denying that they have power is a bit narrow-minded.
- criley2 5y agoI didn't deny that landlords have power. But the power of the vote includes the ability to regulate and control nearly every form of landlords inherent power. Rent control and eviction moratoriums nearly completely neuter landlord power. Which as I said elsewhere to downvotes, leads to heavy discrimination based on income/class and less supply for the neediest of folk
- banannaise 5y agoAnd when no candidates will enact these policies, largely because of the monied interests elevating them to contention, how does the power to vote help?
- criley2 5y agoThese policies are enacted across the country. I must admit to confusion about your hypothetical. Rent control and eviction moratoriums exist in major cities across the USA, so an argument that they can't be enacted because no one will run that supports them is very odd to me.
- jjoonathan 5y agoWhen the incentives are asymmetric, the party that cares more only has to install a few hurdles to win. I congratulate renters in Seattle on jumping over the hurdles, but I suspect it required some doing.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]