• OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’d rather pay five percent of my income in taxes and not have to walk by homeless people because they have somewhere to live and not have to worry about being homeless if I lose my job or eventually retire and have to worry about constantly increasing rent or property taxes on a fixed income than pay around a third of my income in rent so Brad and Karen can go on another vacation to the Bahamas this year.

    • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      How does that add up? If you pay 33% to Brad and Karen, where does the civil servants get the building sites, construction workers and materials for 5%, ignoring the extra space needed for the formerly homeless?

      Do landlords have more than 500% profit margins?

      • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I’m basing this off of real world data taken from socialist projects. Rent in the USSR was 5 percent of income for example.

        They do not have 500 percent margins because capitalism is incredibly inefficient and they’re only one small actor making money from the situation in a broader ecosystem of developers, construction companies, etc.

        • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          If you go for standardized housing with an abundance of construction sites then you also get your 5% rent within capitalism.

          The problem is not the landlords but the voters and buyers. The landlords will offer 5% housing if the demand is there, together with construction sites.

          • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            but the voters

            The US is objectively an oligarchy based on many longitudinal studies. The problem is the oligarchy, which contains property owners.

            • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              That doesn’t make landlords the origin of high rents.

              If people want less rent, it doesn’t help to oppose landlords. All it does is reducing the number of participants which worsens the situation.

              Renters can decide elections. Unionize and negotiate with the parties how many construction sites they will create. Then vote accordingly. Then rent will go down.

              • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                That doesn’t make landlords the origin of high rents.

                No, it has nothing to do with how landlords are parasites, it is just explaining that it isnt the voters fault that parasitism is allowed.

                If people want less rent, it doesn’t help to oppose landlords.

                It helps to oppose the landlord class and abolish the idea of rent.

                Renters can decide elections.

                The US is empirically not a democracy. Is this going in one ear and out the other?

                • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  It is the voters fault.

                  Voters are responsible for politics.

                  Even if they are manipulated, it’s still their fault. Like drunk driving.

                  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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                    1 year ago

                    You are empirically incorrect, studies show the US is an oligarchy. Bribery is literally legal in the US as long as the right procedures are followed.

                • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  Landlords are not parasites. If you have enough competition then profits will go down until it’s barely rewarding to manage property, which somebody has to do.

                  Housing just costs so much becsuse of zoning laws and lack of public transport.

                  Unless you pull of a revolution, competing landlords are key if you want rentable housing.

                  But you want to abolish the idea of rent. What will happen? People have to own their housing units. This requires credit. People who don’t get credit now, where will they live?

                  Of course you can establish Socialism. But you don’t believe that voters can change politics.

                  What’s the most possible change?

                  I think making the housing market competitive is possible. But it’s still difficult because there needs to be a decision about how to handle collapsing housing prices and the defaulting on most mortgages.

                  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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                    1 year ago

                    Landlords are not parasites.

                    The father of classical economics and the father of Marxian economics are in agreement about landlords being parasites but you have been blessed with divine knowledge that says they aren’t. Please, impart your wisdom on the masses. /s

                    Seriously, imagine the ego to think you know better than literally the people behind the two major competing economic analysis systems.

                    But you want to abolish the idea of rent. What will happen?

                    Literally look into how much nicer housing is in places that succeeded at communist land reform. Talk to Vietnamese and Cuban people about how housing is handled. Plenty of them speak English if you’re monolingual. (Not vietnamese american or cuban American, people who actually live in the current systems)