21–30 of 89 posts
> (underlined) Today it's a prostitution ring, tomorrow it could be an illegal gambling ring, and maybe next week it could be a drug operation. This is textbook 'slippery slope' fallacy. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.
> (underlined) Today it's a prostitution ring, tomorrow it could be an illegal gambling ring, and maybe next week it could be a drug operation. This is textbook 'slippery slope' fallacy. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.
If you believe that AirBnB WILL be used for prostitution, but WILL NOT be used for gambling or a drug operation, you should articulate a reason why you think there is a difference in kind that would prevent people from using AirBnB for those other purposes.
> (underlined) Today it's a prostitution ring, tomorrow it could be an illegal gambling ring, and maybe next week it could be a drug operation. This is textbook 'slippery slope' fallacy. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.
In this case, all there are pretty equivalently bad, and the quote was just other similar ways the rooms could be exploited.
> we need to protect the limited housing stock we have from being arbitraged into other uses This seems like a more compelling point than the title topic.
I think this is where the argument for short term whole-residence rentals breaks down. In the beginning, Airbnb was for homeowners and renters to provide a spare bedroom to travelers. In that case, they're facilitating a private transaction between two individuals to exchange money for a place to crash. By the residents staying at the home for the duration of the guest's stay, it's hard to call that a sublet, and the…
Its actually quite easy: you are renting out space in a unit you are renting from a landlord -- so its a sublet. That you are present is irrelevant to whether it is a sublet (it may, OTOH, be relevant to whether it is prohibited by law independent of lease conditions even aside from considering whether it is a sublet, but that's a different issue.)
It's always painful to watch luddite bureaucrats pontificate on technology and how it needs to be controlled to "protect" the population. I remember when I was at Google in 2003 there was a California politician who demanded that Google be regulated like a utility company because it was so important. That was when it was still a private company! Or when another California bureaucrat wanted to ban gmail because it vio…
There's definitely a continuum from "radical luddite" to "techno-utopian," and I think striking a balance between caution and optimism is the way to go.
> (underlined) Today it's a prostitution ring, tomorrow it could be an illegal gambling ring, and maybe next week it could be a drug operation. This is textbook 'slippery slope' fallacy. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.
It can't get much worse than one's apartment being used as a brothel, there's really nowhere to slide to at that point.
An active neighbour can easily be bringing some stranger they picked up at a bar twice each night; if that stranger pays afterwards then that doesn't change anything for me.
> (underlined) Today it's a prostitution ring, tomorrow it could be an illegal gambling ring, and maybe next week it could be a drug operation. This is textbook 'slippery slope' fallacy. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.
In this case, there is in fact an escalating progression of bad things happening in Airbnb rentals; in rough order:
* Criminal enterprises buying entire buildings and turning them into unlawful hotels
* Renters trashing Airbnb rentals
* Floating brothels
The leap from here to "gambling" doesn't sound too crazy; in fact, gambling seems more innocuous than a floating brothel.
> we need to protect the limited housing stock we have from being arbitraged into other uses This seems like a more compelling point than the title topic.
So basically, she's admitting that the property is more valuable than its current use, and the city is actively denying itself tax revenue because of it.