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Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

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Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#61
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does gun control have to do with left-right politics? For healthcare, he is site says he wants a single payer system with no deductibles, so, entirely government funded… what’s the more left wing option?

What I was getting at with both points: - Gun control in almost any country is WAY stricter than in the US, and people in the EU are absolutely fine with the government interfering heavy-handedly in that subject. There would be riots in the street here if schools would need to have "active shooter policies" for example, we'd rather have a blanket ban on private firearm possession and have the police enforce that. In…

I don't think I actually saw a plan to have the government nationalize the hospitals and take them out of private hands?

Nationalizing all the hospitals would put you way to the left in many EU countries. Most right of centre parties (and even some left of centre parties) in the EU are pushing for more private health care, not less.

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#62
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does gun control have to do with left-right politics? For healthcare, he is site says he wants a single payer system with no deductibles, so, entirely government funded… what’s the more left wing option?

What I was getting at with both points: - Gun control in almost any country is WAY stricter than in the US, and people in the EU are absolutely fine with the government interfering heavy-handedly in that subject. There would be riots in the street here if schools would need to have "active shooter policies" for example, we'd rather have a blanket ban on private firearm possession and have the police enforce that. In…

It looks to me like there’s some variation in the number of private vs public hospitals and beds (figure 3).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8005513/

So at least we could say the idea of having publicly owned hospitals did fly in Norway and the Netherlands, for example. Unless I’ve misunderstood the data.

WRT guns, it is true that we have a crazy amount of guns in the US, more than one per person, which is totally absurd. But there’s significant state-level variation, for example I grew up in Massachusetts where we have around 7 guns per 100 people, which seems OK compared to some EU countries. Bernie represents a fairly rural state (and also one with gun manufacturers), so he’s more little-l liberal (in the “anything goes” sense) on guns than a lot of Democrats.

Anyway, I’d agree that he’s more left-leaning than most democrats and maybe he’s a little to the right of, at least, some centrist EU political parties. But IMO the fact that one of our most left wing politicians happens to be weak on guns is more of a coincidence that overplays the difference (which certainly isn’t to say there isn’t any difference). You could look at Liz Warren for someone who’s just smidge to his right, but is also more willing to restrict guns.

Another interesting departure from Democratic Party principles for Bernie was that he was more of a NAFTA (free trade in North America) skeptic, and is less of a proponent of immigration. In the US these are generally Republican-party aligned positions, so if we want to call the parties our arrows for “left” and “right,” that puts him more to the right. But, he came to those positions through worker protections concerns. And, it is not that uncommon for left wing parties in Europe to have similar concerns, I think? IMO, there are just too many issues to make a one or two dimensional map.

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#63

The bit that "Even if they currently don’t have enough money in their balance to pay rent, [household's] won’t complain and will instead spend less money on resource consumption." seems to be important too...

True. A more realistic implementation would be for the tenants to complain and be ignored, then maybe start defaulting on the rent.

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#64
post #31
post #17

> Now, Colossal Order says, it will be based on a household’s income: “Even if they currently don’t have enough money in their balance to pay rent, they won’t complain and will instead spend less money on resource consumption.” Good idea, negative reward for increased income. Sounds like a socialist utopia. I believe a better option would be to remove mortgages. I have a few reasons for this: 1. Houses are priced bas…

Mortgages are useful even if you don’t repay them. The mortgage gets settled upon death. And while alive it allows the lendee cash flow to live in a home. It effectively becomes a shifted rent payment where instead of landlords, the person owns the house and services the interest. I prefer this over the cash house method or just perpetual renting. Mortgages are what allow the “middle class” to own homes, and not just…

> It effectively becomes a shifted rent payment where instead of landlords, the person owns the house and services the interest.

That's only true if you can keep up with payments. You'll soon learn what you do or don't own when you miss them. To be clear: You do not own your home until the last payment is made, ownership until that point is in name only.

> I prefer this over the cash house method or just perpetual renting.

Inflated house prices almost directly impacts the renting market. Rents are typically set at about 1% of purchase price [1] and then they tend to track the estimated house cost over time.

> Mortgages are what allow the “middle class” to own homes, and not just royalty or rich.

At least in the UK, a family where just the man worked would be able to buy his own home within 10 years. Mortgages allowed the housing market to set higher prices.

The problem with mortgages is that they are always looking to de-risk their investment, and as a result it prices out the the people who would need it [2].

[1] https://housinganywhere.com/United-Kingdom/calculate-rental-...

[2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati...

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#65

The bit that "Even if they currently don’t have enough money in their balance to pay rent, [household's] won’t complain and will instead spend less money on resource consumption." seems to be important too...

True. A more realistic implementation would be for the tenants to complain and be ignored, then maybe start defaulting on the rent.

Don't forget a backlog on maintenance leading to a decrease in quality of living space. On the other hand, that does happen today with some landlords.

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#66
post #17

> Now, Colossal Order says, it will be based on a household’s income: “Even if they currently don’t have enough money in their balance to pay rent, they won’t complain and will instead spend less money on resource consumption.” Good idea, negative reward for increased income. Sounds like a socialist utopia. I believe a better option would be to remove mortgages. I have a few reasons for this: 1. Houses are priced bas…

> It doesn't add up. It adds up when you realise that the number of people entering the country (by birth or net legal/illegal immigration or asylum) is far higher than the number of new homes being built.

In the UK, the native indigenous people have a birth rate below replacement rate (note that 'native indigenous' is not 'UK-born' [1]), meaning the requirement for housing should be relatively low. In spite of this, the population of the UK in the last 10 years has increased by at least 6.8% [2].

It remains unclear why we are surprised there is suddenly a housing crisis. /s

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

[2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati...

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#67
post #64
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mortgages are useful even if you don’t repay them. The mortgage gets settled upon death. And while alive it allows the lendee cash flow to live in a home. It effectively becomes a shifted rent payment where instead of landlords, the person owns the house and services the interest. I prefer this over the cash house method or just perpetual renting. Mortgages are what allow the “middle class” to own homes, and not just…

> It effectively becomes a shifted rent payment where instead of landlords, the person owns the house and services the interest. That's only true if you can keep up with payments. You'll soon learn what you do or don't own when you miss them. To be clear: You do not own your home until the last payment is made, ownership until that point is in name only. > I prefer this over the cash house method or just perpetual re…

> That's only true if you can keep up with payments. You'll soon learn what you do or don't own when you miss them

Yes, of course. If you can’t make payments, then you’re in trouble. Just like if you can’t pay rent.

I think the basic assumption is that everyone has to pay for shelter, in some form or another.

You do actually own your home as soon as purchase is made. But you have a lien against the home for some amount.

If you can’t make payments, you don’t lose everything. You get what equity is remaining after expenses.

But then, even when you pay off the mortgage you still have obligations like taxes, insurance, etc.

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#68
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably use the term "landlord" to refer to professional full-time landlords, sort of like how you wouldn't call a person a "carpenter" just because they made a table or a chair in their spare time (though personally, I wouldn't object to that person choosing to call themselves a carpenter.) The person with one spare home that's renting it out is likely doing it as supplementary income, or might not even be tur…

Plus there's a whole spectrum from surplus letting to mega corporate agents. There are individual landlords who own 3-6 lets, respond promptly to call-outs, keep the buildings in good condition, are cautious to raise rents, and don't try to screw you over on the deposit. They're difficult to find (partly because tenants stick with them) but they're out there and doing a good thing for society. The question is not nec…

There is also a whole slate of individual landlords with small holdings that let out rundown slums. Being small scale isn't the panacea your comment implies.

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#69
For rent control you need to imagine landlords like pest in nature. How you control pest? By introducing predator that prey on pest. Or you can control resources that let pest thrive. For Ametican landlords there are no true predator other than governments. And governments typically are slow while landlords can adapt faster. In this case government would be like sabretooth tiger or megalodon predators moving so slow unable to do much to catch preys. The 2nd thing is the resources. Landlords thrive because asymmetric information. Renters find hard to negotiate. Renters also become desperate when public transports become limited in a highly demand area with no alternatives. Once you start to see this problem predatory-prey relationship, landlords as pest can be put under control. I suggest you guys read up how Singapore government control landlords. They have very practical and innovative ways that span decades of planning into future. Even though land is incredibly limited and cost of living high, in terms of available and affordable rents to citizens and foreigners will put London, NY, Tokyo to shame.

Re: Cities: Skylines II Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

#70
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus there's a whole spectrum from surplus letting to mega corporate agents. There are individual landlords who own 3-6 lets, respond promptly to call-outs, keep the buildings in good condition, are cautious to raise rents, and don't try to screw you over on the deposit. They're difficult to find (partly because tenants stick with them) but they're out there and doing a good thing for society. The question is not nec…

There is also a whole slate of individual landlords with small holdings that let out rundown slums. Being small scale isn't the panacea your comment implies.

Didn't mean to imply that although I see where you're coming from. I was instead trying to counter the idea that anything bigger than a surplus room letter is bad.
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