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Comment on 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?

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enbyecho@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

Without landlords, we’d not have a housing crisis.

Maybe. Or maybe it’s not so simple. Because:

There would be enough housing for everyone, we have plenty of resources and land to build them.

But would they be built? I’m in no way saying this is “right” but for them to be built builders have to know they are going to make a profit. The smaller that profit the more pressure to build fewer. Now maybe we get lucky and all this downward pressure on prices balances out. But I’d guess that far far fewer homes would be built and so the question ends up being is it still enough? Some say there are plenty of houses already and it would be, but that assumes those who paid the inflated prices are willing to accept less money now.

tl;dr we’re fucked.

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Brainsploosh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Profit, price pressures, inflation are not necessarily meaningful terms in a different system.

Homes have been built for many thousands of years longer than we’ve had those as concepts.

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- enbyecho@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  Profit, price pressures, inflation are not necessarily meaningful terms in a different system.
  
  What exactly do you mean by that?
  
  Homes have been built for many thousands of years longer than we’ve had those as concepts.
  
  If you include cedar bark as a major construction material then sure. Not knocking cedar bark here - it’s great. But not quite the same investment in time or durability.
  
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  - Brainsploosh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
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    enbyecho@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    In a circular or planned economy, those aren’t really significant measures,
    
    Ok, sure - you just said “different” and did not specify.
    
    As mentioned in the last reply, the Palace of Knossos, as well as the Petra were marvels of craftsmanship and engineering, staggering investments,
    
    That involved massive exploitation and slave labor. And let’s not forget significant taxation, looting, etc.
    
    You comparing them with modern construction methods necessitated by capitalism
    
    I’m comparing them because I’m making the point that profit, price pressures and inflation obviously arise when private entities make huge capital investments.
    
    So now that you’ve actually specified “different” as meaning non-capitalist systems, it leads me to wonder if you thought King Minos sought out volunteers… or did he pay everyone fairly? Are you really using “public” works built under autocratic rule as positive examples we can replicate?
    
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