Free money is not a thing… Except for people who do nothing that anybody wants to trade for money, and then it’s their entitlement and fuck everyone else?
And yes everyone deserves housing, food, healthcare, and a shot at happiness. But taking something for nothing on the backs of people with more to offer than you and then being an ungrateful dick about it saying you just deserve it is pretty off-putting. Let’s all share and make sure everybody gets a shake, but JFC be gracious and say thank you if you are on the take of the system. Putting money in real estate by a college campus is not the same as buying up every new house on the market in an area, I just want a place to put my money that isn’t going to go tits up before I can put my kids through college.
Some people don’t have shit to offer society, and some of those people ARE rich. Some of them are not rich, and gotta have a big fucking pair of nuts to throw around words like “leech”.
mke_geek@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Not everything people pay for produces a tangible object. For example, people pay to hear someone play a song. People pay to hop in an Uber to get from point A to point B – they don’t own the car they ride in afterwards.
People pay for services and there’s nothing wrong with that.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
Renting is not a service. It is a passive income.
People playing a song or driving a car for someone else are performing a service.
mke_geek@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Providing rental housing is a service. It’s a job, like being a waiter or a flight attendant.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
Note that being a waiter or a flight attendant requires activity which directly affects the client – just like other services. Not true of landlords.
Owning a property and renting it out does not intrinsically equate to providing a service. In fact, the only activity one has to do (in many cases) is collect rent, which is a service to the landlord only. Landlords can offer services – improving the property, for example (though it’s a service which does also benefit the landlord) – but this is not intrinsic to property renting in the way of any service you mentioned.
And it certainly isn’t a job, in the traditional sense of having a boss and a schedule etc. I guess in some sense it is closer somewhat to independent contracting, except that you ultimately get to kick out your “clients” if you want to, and you don’t have to do anything they ask. Even by that interpretation, it’s money for nothing. “Job” suggests effort.
I assume you’re about to try and claim that paperwork and government hoops that landlords may have to work through means that they must, by definition, be a service. And to that, I would say: things that give you income are meant to require effort. But I’d gladly take over the paperwork for my landlord if it meant I didn’t need to keep giving him half of my active income every month for doing literally nothing, and I don’t think I’m alone in that at all.
RandomCucumber@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
I guess it really depends on whether or not the landlord is a slumlord or not.
Home ownership is not easy. Homes and properties require constant care and maintenance, for those who care about them. Having two properties can easily eat up 2-3 days a week, year round.
Absolute bare minimum I put at least $10,000 into my house every year, and that’s if I do all the work myself and nothing major breaks.
Paint, decking, siding, roof, furnace, plumbing, electrical, lighting, exhaust fans, yardwork, insulation, windows, doors, cabinetry, appliances, replacing sewer lines, cleaning french drains, gutters, etc etc. They may not all need work in the same year, but they do all need work and some of those jobs are a major time and money commitment.
To say property ownership is a passive income is ignorant at best, but more likely disingenuous. If it’s truly passive, it’s only passive for a short period of time before the costs catch up to you and your “investment” is ruined.