this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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Landlording
For-profit housing is a massive racket. Investment firms posing as housing developers get tax breaks for buying up properties, inflating the market, pricing out families, and renting those same homes back to the community to pay the mortgage on their investment, plus profit. What fucking purpose do they serve society? Pure predatory capitalist greed at the expense of our housing. For-profit housing needs to be banned. Investment real estate needs to be regulated until all our citizens can afford to buy homes in their localities.
That's like saying grocery stores are a "scam".
No because at grocery stores, you get a product.
With renting, you are paying for landlord's mortgage. You don't even get to own anything.
Also, grocery stores do operate like a scam in certain cases, for example price gouging during a pandemic or other disasters.
Are you a landlord?
With renting, you're paying for a place to live and store your stuff. That's a product. It's a physical thing you can touch.
With food, you use it for a while then it just goes down the toilet in the end. Does that mean you should stop eating?
Is it though? You get the same home and get to own it if you had enough down-payment. The only thing landlord has the renter doesn't is the capital for down-payment.
Once again asking, are you a landlord?
There are people who can't save up for a down payment and therefore wouldn't be able to responsibly take care of a house even if they were given one.
There's people who don't want to own a house. A house comes with a bunch of costs and responsibility.
These are just a few examples. There's quite a number more. Some people like knowing that expenses like that are covered by someone else.
In the grocery store example, there's people who like growing their own food. For others, they'd rather someone else do that even if they're paying a markup to buy it from a grocery store, because they can get everything in one place.
Once again asking are you a fucking landlord?
Swearing at someone doesn't foster discussion.
We donβt talk to landlords, bye bye!
60-65% of households in the USA are homeowners, either outright or through a mortgage. 80-90% of households in Eastern Europe are homeowners. It's pretty clear that people who are perennial renters are mostly people who cannot clear the financial hurdle of a down payment. I don't think the "some people don't want to" line is a solid argument. It's the exception thata proves the rule.
The repairs and property taxes and mortgage all add up to a total that is less than the rent, on average. Otherwise, landlords would have a disincentive, and every landlord would be operating at a loss.
The points you made are points that landlords use as justification for their occupation/position. Are you a landlord?