4 ms·

Much like the car rental agency is a pointless middleman between you and the car manufacturer.

by seti0Cha 3y ago

rwmj 3y ago
Car rental provides a service. They provide a clean, working car at the airport at a daily rate.
- seti0Cha 3y ago
  Office rentals are also a service. They provide a stable office environment that you can do business in at a fixed rate.
  - ambicapter 3y ago
    Except they don't, if you have to do all the repairs yourself, as GP pointed out.
    - seti0Cha 3y ago
      A strange thing to get hung up on. The purpose of rental is not to have someone to call to get things fixed, it's to avoid having to engage in the complex legal and financial considerations that come with property ownership. A company of any size is not going to have a problem hiring people to fix things. If they don't want to do that, they can rent spaces where those amenities are included. It's purely a matter of deciding how to manage the expenses.
tristor 3y ago
That would only be a true analogy if I rented a car for 10+ years. At that point, it would likely make more sense to buy. In fact, it often makes more sense to buy corporate real estate as well, however because these commercial landlords already own it and refuse to sell (or only will sell at a price far beyond the actual legitimate value of the property), businesses must either /build/ new real estate or lease, and building is far more expensive than buying due to the regulatory capture of zoning and permitting. It's a mere coincidence that major commercial landlords are good buddies with everyone at the zoning and planning office in $metro. If you want to be honest, the service commercial landlords provide is managing zoning/permitting with the city by proxy, which is mostly a corrupt institution, so it's corruption management by proxy.
- seti0Cha 3y ago
  It would be a closer analogy, but analogies aren't true or false, they are more or less useful in making a point. As it happens, my analogy was not that useful because apparently many people didn't understand it. The point I was trying to make was that flexibility, cost and location are actual things of value being provided in both cases. The fact that the duration differs is no more germane to my point than that one of them is mobile and the other not. And in no wise does the consideration of when it becomes more prudent to buy a car bear on when it is prudent to buy a piece of property.

Much like the car rental agency is a pointless middleman between you and the car manufacturer.

rwmj 3y ago

Car rental provides a service. They provide a clean, working car at the airport at a daily rate.

seti0Cha 3y ago
Office rentals are also a service. They provide a stable office environment that you can do business in at a fixed rate.
- ambicapter 3y ago
  Except they don't, if you have to do all the repairs yourself, as GP pointed out.
  - seti0Cha 3y ago
    A strange thing to get hung up on. The purpose of rental is not to have someone to call to get things fixed, it's to avoid having to engage in the complex legal and financial considerations that come with property ownership. A company of any size is not going to have a problem hiring people to fix things. If they don't want to do that, they can rent spaces where those amenities are included. It's purely a matter of deciding how to manage the expenses.

tristor 3y ago

That would only be a true analogy if I rented a car for 10+ years. At that point, it would likely make more sense to buy. In fact, it often makes more sense to buy corporate real estate as well, however because these commercial landlords already own it and refuse to sell (or only will sell at a price far beyond the actual legitimate value of the property), businesses must either /build/ new real estate or lease, and building is far more expensive than buying due to the regulatory capture of zoning and permitting. It's a mere coincidence that major commercial landlords are good buddies with everyone at the zoning and planning office in $metro. If you want to be honest, the service commercial landlords provide is managing zoning/permitting with the city by proxy, which is mostly a corrupt institution, so it's corruption management by proxy.

seti0Cha 3y ago
It would be a closer analogy, but analogies aren't true or false, they are more or less useful in making a point. As it happens, my analogy was not that useful because apparently many people didn't understand it. The point I was trying to make was that flexibility, cost and location are actual things of value being provided in both cases. The fact that the duration differs is no more germane to my point than that one of them is mobile and the other not. And in no wise does the consideration of when it becomes more prudent to buy a car bear on when it is prudent to buy a piece of property.