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EU citizens love this attitude from Americans as they invest in REITs while sitting in their cheaper apartments. The EU states love it as they got to tax that i

EU citizens love this attitude from Americans as they invest in REITs while sitting in their cheaper apartments. The EU states love it as they got to tax that income from US REITs. In Denmark we have "Bopælspligt" meaning that an owner of an apartment is obligated to have someone living in the apartment. While i know this is detrimental to the US mentality is forces a free market on real estate and is, IMHO, the only way you can ensure a fair rental market without rent control. As a result real estate in Copenhagen is cheap enough that most working people in Denmark are able to buy (albeit that being a small apartment).

mrtksn 3y ago
>In Denmark we have "Bopælspligt" meaning that an owner of an apartment is obligated to have someone living in the apartment. What happens if no one is living? Can't find a tenant or simply takes a really long holiday or goes abroad to to work for a few years? I'm under impression that Americans freak out because they tend to go full technical on laws, that is, they don't care much what the governments are trying to achieve with the laws but work within the limits of strict technicality. So a lot of Americans were freaking out here on HN when GDPR was introduced, some shutting down personal projects because were afraid to get in trouble with the EU laws and find themselves in huge and expensive lawsuits.
- madsbuch 3y ago
  if you go abroad you most definitely rent out your owned apartment as you otherwise are fully tax liable in Denmark with a permanent dwelling. if you are on a long holiday, you still legally live in the unit. if you cannot rent it out you, well, lower the rent until you can. easy as that. or you put the unit up for sale, which suspends the rule.
- shortsunblack 3y ago
  The GDPR comment perhaps is indicative of this out of all. GDPR enforcement has been small, ineffective and nowhere close to "every kind of violation gets an expensive lawsuit attached". It's as if this is meta-commentary.
  - mrtksn 3y ago
    I don't know why there needs to be "iron fist nazi approach, hanging people for the smallest violation" kind of enforcement of the GDPR to be effective. Europeans are not that much into laws and enforcement of it, there's always some level of disorder and lawlessness and the police wouldn't start shooting immediately. Things tend to be corrected after some scandal or if the issue grows to be actually impactful. GDPR essentially makes companies mindful about how they store and transfer data and if something goes wrong, it is useful to tell what went wrong and who is responsible about it. There's no EU police going around and nocking on the doors, taking people in for the smallest violation.
    - shortsunblack 3y ago
      There should be sth closer to an 'iron fist' approach, though. GDPR is a general data protection law. It's the lowest common denominator for all of industry. Industries that are particularly invasive to privacy are to be (and currently are) regulated with more specific legislation that adds to GDPR. Some provisions of DMA and DSA, for example, add more regulatory cost to Big Tech and Big Tech solely. ePrivacy is also lex specialis to GDPR, and further hampers adtech privacy invasions. There must be more GDPR enforcement. Not just against the primary culprits.
      - mrtksn 3y ago
        Maybe, but EU doesn’t actually have a way to enforce it directly. Instead, countries adopt their laws to the requirements and they enforce it. You end up with something that represents the character of every country, this usually means laws followed and enforced in the north and west, not so much in the south east.

mrtksn 3y ago

>In Denmark we have "Bopælspligt" meaning that an owner of an apartment is obligated to have someone living in the apartment. What happens if no one is living? Can't find a tenant or simply takes a really long holiday or goes abroad to to work for a few years? I'm under impression that Americans freak out because they tend to go full technical on laws, that is, they don't care much what the governments are trying to achieve with the laws but work within the limits of strict technicality. So a lot of Americans were freaking out here on HN when GDPR was introduced, some shutting down personal projects because were afraid to get in trouble with the EU laws and find themselves in huge and expensive lawsuits.

madsbuch 3y ago
if you go abroad you most definitely rent out your owned apartment as you otherwise are fully tax liable in Denmark with a permanent dwelling. if you are on a long holiday, you still legally live in the unit. if you cannot rent it out you, well, lower the rent until you can. easy as that. or you put the unit up for sale, which suspends the rule.
shortsunblack 3y ago
The GDPR comment perhaps is indicative of this out of all. GDPR enforcement has been small, ineffective and nowhere close to "every kind of violation gets an expensive lawsuit attached". It's as if this is meta-commentary.
- mrtksn 3y ago
  I don't know why there needs to be "iron fist nazi approach, hanging people for the smallest violation" kind of enforcement of the GDPR to be effective. Europeans are not that much into laws and enforcement of it, there's always some level of disorder and lawlessness and the police wouldn't start shooting immediately. Things tend to be corrected after some scandal or if the issue grows to be actually impactful. GDPR essentially makes companies mindful about how they store and transfer data and if something goes wrong, it is useful to tell what went wrong and who is responsible about it. There's no EU police going around and nocking on the doors, taking people in for the smallest violation.
  - shortsunblack 3y ago
    There should be sth closer to an 'iron fist' approach, though. GDPR is a general data protection law. It's the lowest common denominator for all of industry. Industries that are particularly invasive to privacy are to be (and currently are) regulated with more specific legislation that adds to GDPR. Some provisions of DMA and DSA, for example, add more regulatory cost to Big Tech and Big Tech solely. ePrivacy is also lex specialis to GDPR, and further hampers adtech privacy invasions. There must be more GDPR enforcement. Not just against the primary culprits.
    - mrtksn 3y ago
      Maybe, but EU doesn’t actually have a way to enforce it directly. Instead, countries adopt their laws to the requirements and they enforce it. You end up with something that represents the character of every country, this usually means laws followed and enforced in the north and west, not so much in the south east.