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Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

smartcompany.com.au

21–30 of 73 posts

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#21

So stop all payments. Nobody pays rent, landowners don’t pay their mortgages, banks don’t pay interest. Companies don’t pay dividends, bonds don’t pay interest. Just stop using money to organize productive activity for a few months until the coronavirus curve flattens. If all payments are stopped for three months, then it’s simply hitting the “Pause” button on the whole money system. There are no economic data for th…

As a pragmatist who likes simplicity, this makes total sense.

As a dev, this terrifies me. I can't imagine how many bugs this might cause in financial software.

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#22
Placing the burden on landlords will unintentionally lead to greater concentration of wealth. Property owners with mortgages will be forced to sell (at a loss, if there is a glut of properties on the market). The buyers will be those who already have a lot of cash, or who are otherwise in a strong enough financial position to wait out the crisis.

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#24

So stop all payments. Nobody pays rent, landowners don’t pay their mortgages, banks don’t pay interest. Companies don’t pay dividends, bonds don’t pay interest. Just stop using money to organize productive activity for a few months until the coronavirus curve flattens. If all payments are stopped for three months, then it’s simply hitting the “Pause” button on the whole money system. There are no economic data for th…

This is the kind of solution I would like to see. But you just know, there's a number of people with the power and influence to decide whether or not something get's done DESPISE the idea that people are allowed to have a roof over their head, eat food, and be happy without paying them anything.

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#25
Landlords don't contribute to society; all they do is leech wealth away from working people.

Furthermore, they increase property prices for everyone by buying property and leaving it empty, or buying property and hiking rent up as much the market allows.

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#26
post #2

> We need legislation to ban rents for COVID-19-affected businesses. This only works if the government mandates full moratorium on both rents and mortgages. That also means that no interest on mortgage is accrued during this time. Otherwise, landlords are screwed in the same way as tenants - they can't pay mortgage and the property may turn into foreclosure. More so, frequently landlords are screwed even more - becau…

But who should the government punish? Everyone equally? The richest X%? The poorest X%? Particular industr[y,ies]? If everyone says “not us, somebody else!” there will be no redistribution.

To me, under circumstances universal income may be the most sensible solution. Which would also largely avoid questions like this one (btw everyone still going to take a hit - no doubt about that, but at least it could be negotiated between parties then). Governments still need to figure out if they have enough resources though - it's a lot of work if one is willing to take it.

Unfortunately, what I see instead here in Canada is heavy subsidies for large banks who are just passing it as more debt to everyone else. May do even more harm long-term.

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#27

I think most landlords are wealthy people who are easily placed to weather this financial crisis. By definition if you are wealthy enough to own property beyond one house then you’re wealthy enough to survive this. And if you can’t afford to, then sell it and suffer like all the other real business owners are suffering. Why should landlords be a protected species in all this?

Not all wealth is liquid. Not all wealth can be liquefied.

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#28

So stop all payments. Nobody pays rent, landowners don’t pay their mortgages, banks don’t pay interest. Companies don’t pay dividends, bonds don’t pay interest. Just stop using money to organize productive activity for a few months until the coronavirus curve flattens. If all payments are stopped for three months, then it’s simply hitting the “Pause” button on the whole money system. There are no economic data for th…

This doesn't work because not every one has stopped working.

The best solution would be for the government to pay the bottom and have the payments "trickle up".

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#29
post #2

> We need legislation to ban rents for COVID-19-affected businesses. This only works if the government mandates full moratorium on both rents and mortgages. That also means that no interest on mortgage is accrued during this time. Otherwise, landlords are screwed in the same way as tenants - they can't pay mortgage and the property may turn into foreclosure. More so, frequently landlords are screwed even more - becau…

But who should the government punish? Everyone equally? The richest X%? The poorest X%? Particular industr[y,ies]? If everyone says “not us, somebody else!” there will be no redistribution.

The government should punish itself. Issue more debt and backstop unemployment. Otherwise, it will just propagate.

Re: Covid-19: Landlords will kill our economy

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of states in America give tenants nearly zero protections

Honestly sounds like measures that could get pushed at local levels by local people, successfully

No because the local governments are owned by homeowners
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