121–130 of 147 posts
> through the first five days of April, 31 percent of tenants had so far failed to pay their rent, compared with 18 percent in the same period a year ago. If the headline had said 18%, the situation would have sounded bad to me, but apparently that's normal?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Start by banning China (and any other country that doesn't allow US citizens to own land) from owning property in the US. Something tells me when you get rid of all the foreign profit lords, that property will be much more affordable in many areas.
How do you make that happen, realistically? "You must sell." "Okay, this 3br house is $10MM. It's not selling." Eminent domain? Are we going to do that for the huge swathes of vacant homes we already have, too?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Almost by definition "rent" is simply extracting value from the productive economy through ownership. What? Do you define any profit margin as such? Housing rent is not the same thing as the term 'economic rent'. Housing is as much a liability as an asset. There is risk with owning it. Rent payments are compensation for said risk. All profit is just compensation for risk.
Profit is not compensation for risk. Risk is a limiting factor in chasing after profits, sure, but you can take unprofitable risks, and if you have a particularly privileged position or information, you can make a profit with little to no risk. Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster doesn't exactly take a lot of risk for his rents.
That's not really how the entrepreneur thing is framed.
But isn't it a moral position then ?
> through the first five days of April, 31 percent of tenants had so far failed to pay their rent, compared with 18 percent in the same period a year ago. If the headline had said 18%, the situation would have sounded bad to me, but apparently that's normal?
Included in that 18% are people who aren't supposed to pay rent in the first 5 days of a month. Their rent is just due later in the month.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hard, sure you have to actually do something and hire people. It’s a pretty basic business. Watch the money going out, manage the tenants coming in.
You're right that it's not an uncharacteristically complicated business, but all businesses are hard! The idea that business owners sit there sipping whiskey, living an unburdened life like an aristocrat, is almost always false.
I personally know way too many permutations of 'landlords' to feel comfortable judging them all in a similar way, but I'm still inclined to judge most of them negatively and harshly. Because in most cases, it's just so obvious how their owning and 'rentier' status is not a consequence of 'fairness' or even 'fair competition'.
My landlord got what he had because of his age. Most of my rentier friends have what they have because they inherited it. I'm okay with my landlord because he's disabled in some way and scraping by, but it's still weird that I pay for his entire mortgage + more just because he bought a house at the right time. I'd prefer a situation where I can choose to support him rather than feel, weirdly, as part of the precariat that he can kick out whenever he can benefit more from others paying his mortgage and more of his monthly expenses.
The only reason why he can't and won't do this is that legally there's a limit to how much rent he can ask me.
Anyways, point being, there's something fundamentally iffy about the fact that every single 'rentier' I know acquired this status through nepotism or timing, and not via whatever meritocratic measure one could conjure up.
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Keep reading. Here’s my city. https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-albany.html# NYC didn’t shut down, but had an active surveillance program to monitor the situation and act. That’s one of the real tragedies of the complete failure of the federal government. Their ineptitude will kill thousands and impoverish millions.
This looks consistent with what I said. The city shut schools, libraries, everywhere that involved indoor public gatherings, but I'm not seeing anything here about bans on private gatherings or general orders to not leave your house.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Define viable. You mean a dwelling place that protects you from the elements well enough that they won't even be in the top 50 ways you'll be likely to die statistically? Homeless shelters take care of that and there are other options in between. As for businesses - I know plenty of multi-million dollar businesses that have no need for a brick and mortar, but the business angle isn't even an argument - there's never…
With all due respect, you have no idea what you're talking about.
Cheers and I hope you contribute something of substance next time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Almost by definition "rent" is simply extracting value from the productive economy through ownership. What? Do you define any profit margin as such? Housing rent is not the same thing as the term 'economic rent'. Housing is as much a liability as an asset. There is risk with owning it. Rent payments are compensation for said risk. All profit is just compensation for risk.
Profit is not compensation for risk. Risk is a limiting factor in chasing after profits, sure, but you can take unprofitable risks, and if you have a particularly privileged position or information, you can make a profit with little to no risk. Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster doesn't exactly take a lot of risk for his rents.
Yes it is. The primary reason anyone takes on risk is because there is profit in it.
I don't get why it's not ok to steal food from a grocery store but it is ok to not pay rent. Both are basic necessities and in both cases you hurt someone else by not paying for service (food/shelter).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Almost by definition "rent" is simply extracting value from the productive economy through ownership. What? Do you define any profit margin as such? Housing rent is not the same thing as the term 'economic rent'. Housing is as much a liability as an asset. There is risk with owning it. Rent payments are compensation for said risk. All profit is just compensation for risk.
Then should rents go up? It is now much riskier to be a landlord, risk that is going uncompensated...