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When leftists say "landlord are parasites" or similar dislike of landlords, do they also mean the people that own like a couple of houses as an investment, or only the big landlords? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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Reason I'm asking is because I have an aunt that owns like maybe 3 - 5 (not sure the exact amount) small townhouses around the city (well, when I say "city" think of like the areas around a city where theres no tall buildings, but only small 2-3 stories single family homes in the neighborhood) and have these houses up for rent, and honestly, my aunt and her husband doesn't seem like a terrible people. They still work a normal job, and have to pay taxes like everyone else have to. They still have their own debts to pay. I'm not sure exactly how, but my parents say they did a combination of saving up money and taking loans from banks to be able to buy these properties, fix them, then put them up for rent. They don't overcharge, and usually charge slightly below the market to retain tenants, and fix things (or hire people to fix things) when their tenants request them.

I mean, they are just trying to survive in this capitalistic world. They wanna save up for retirement, and fund their kids to college, and leave something for their kids, so they have less of stress in life. I don't see them as bad people. I mean, its not like they own multiple apartment buildings, or doing excessive wealth hoarding.

Do leftists mean people like my aunt too? Or are they an exception to the "landlords are bad" sentinment?

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[–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

I’m not having trouble. You have yet to make any case whatsoever.

Your “explanation” is nothing but a string of pejoratives. Here’s how you describe someone offering the use of an object they own, for a price:

the license to withhold or take away housing from people.

They capture it and extort people for temporary permission to live in it.

In other words they offer the use of something for a price. Oh but they’re not offering it! They’re holding a license to take it away! LOL

A landlord owns a home, an object of great value, and they choose not to use it or sell it, but to sell the use of it. A tenant needs a home but has neither the resources to build or buy one. There is an exchange of value between these parties. That’s renting.

You do nothing to argue that this is parasitic except to slather it with pejoratives. Your list of anecdotal bad experiences people have had with landlords is utterly immaterial to the discussion of whether landlording is definitionally unethical.

I believe you exposed the core of your beliefs here:

The rental income that a landlord collects is not a wage based on any labor that they do.

First of all, how is that true? I purchased my home with money I earned from my labor. Am I not permitted to now own it? And am I not permitted to offer the use of the thing I own? Why? And while we’re at it, who says that all renters pay rent from labor wages? Some of them may pay with dividends from their investments.

To the core, though, the argument seems to be that labor is the only value that exists. Which is bad news for anyone past working age, I guess.

You need to establish some foundations like you think property ownership itself is unethical and labor is the only value before your case even begins to appear on stage.

Instead of this, you’re claiming that your string of pejoratives is an argument which I simply fail to understand. Which is, again, just a pejorative characterization. You’ve offered nothing but here.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'm sorry if you feel offended, but I'm using this terminology objectively. I do not believe that being a landlord automatically makes someone a bad person. However, landlordism is an harmful feature of our predominant mode of production. It relies on the prevalence of homelessness as a credible threat, after all.

    Your list of anecdotal bad experiences people have had with landlords is utterly immaterial to the discussion of whether landlording is definitionally unethical.

    I don't think I listed any anecdotes. You expressed interest in emotional reasoning as to why people resent landlords so I copied some examples of it that I had already written. The ethicality of being a landlord isn't relevant to the economic role of landlords as parasites.

    The rental income that a landlord collects is not a wage based on any labor that they do.

    First of all, how is that true?

    The fact that landlord's do not collect rent based on any labor that they do hasn't been in question since Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations at the latest. Rental income is also known as passive or unearned income. That's the appeal of it to landlords or prospective landlords. It's an established concept. Even if you think that residential rental agreements are perfectly free and voluntary, that's irrelevant to the fact that landlords do not produce or provide anything.

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