Found the landleech
This is not true at all. Good landlords also take care of the property, providing what is functionally a “home as a service” with none of the hassle of maintaining it.
There are bad landlords. Most rentals are owned by them. There are precious few that are not.
SARGE@startrek.website 22 hours ago
bear@slrpnk.net 13 hours ago
I’m a socialist and I agree with them.
The reality is that not everyone wants to own and maintain their current home, for a variety of reasons. So long as homes are commodified, which they effectively will be for the long-term forseeable future until we live in a true post-scarcity society, renting a home will be a necessary option that a functioning society must provide. Housing is expensive in terms of labor and resources, and that labor must be compensated somehow, and not everyone will want or be able to front that entire cost. Or maybe they simply don’t want to settle down permanently where they are now, or even ever, and therefore homeownership would saddle themselves with unwanted debts and the trouble of selling the home when they do move.
The flaws we see in modern day landlords are largely a function of capitalism. Housing is a necessary resource for survival, but one that we’ve rendered artificially scarce through social and economic policy inflating the price, and then it gets bought up by the only people who can afford it and rented out to those who can’t. There’s nothing inherently wrong with, for example, a worker-owned cooperative leasing out housing and providing maintenance services at a fair price for those homes for people who don’t want to do it themselves. Ownership alone isn’t a job and such rentseeking would be forbidden in a sane and just society, but under a better system there would still be room for such a service that provides genuine value to society.
TehPers@beehaw.org 21 hours ago
Imagine having a different opinion.
You could never.
Kissaki@beehaw.org 4 hours ago
Post of this device is covering the risk of unforseen cost. Heating breaks? That may become expensive. You pay a monthly fee and don’t have to manage risk and cost like that. Many people would be ruined if they had to cover that and repair becomes necessary, or face worsening condition.
TehPers@beehaw.org 2 hours ago
As someone who owns my home (a moderately small 2-bedroom condo), I have tens of thousands of dollars worth of work to do to it that I really don’t want to do. Nobody is going to do it for me.
Sometimes I wish I was renting ngl, but rent would be even higher than my mortgage for the same sized place.