1342
What could go wrong?
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
1342 points (100.0% liked)
Microblog Memes
8770 readers
1407 users here now
A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.
Rules:
- Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
- Be nice.
- No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
- Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.
Related communities:
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It would only be an economic crisis for land owners who seek rent. Really housing shouldn’t be something that people profit from.
Some people want to rent (e.g., young people, people with mobile jobs, or people who just aren’t ready to be tied down to one place).
And I don’t have a problem with a small-time property owner renting out a house at a fair rate. In theory it’s a win-win: the renter gets a place to stay, the landlord builds equity in their property.
The issue we have is two-fold:
Companies buying up massive amounts of property (not just a house or two, but thousands) and turning entire neighborhoods into rent zones, driving out any competition and availability of housing to buy, thereby driving up prices.
Price collusion amongst these companies, driving up rent far above fair rates, using these software services that share going rates across markets. That reduces consumer choice.
Barring a really interesting solution, like a Land Value Tax or something, my proposal to remediate this housing problem is rather straight-forward and simple:
Prohibit these software companies from sharing rental rates info to customers. Landlords just need to figure it out in their own markets the old fashioned way.
Prohibit corporations from buying housing with the intention to rent it. Force these corporations to sell their housing and get out of the landlord business.
Allow individuals to hold property for renting out, but cap number of properties a person or household can own for the express intention of renting out to five at any given time. That allows a person to build up a nice little savings nest, and provide a rental property to someone who wants to rent, but doesn’t allow anyone to dominate a housing market. Look for those massive profits elsewhere - start a business that creates and provides value.
Anyway, one can dream, I guess.
You can have non profit driven rentals though…? Why does rent need to be profit driving?
Some people WANT to have short-term commitments to their housing location. That is currently accomplished through rent. That's an important distinction you are missing while trying to preserve elements of familiarity with the way the world currently works.
People don't "want to rent". They want shelter. It's just that renting is the easiest way to get that.
People don’t “want to work.” They want money. It’s just that working is the easiest way for most people to get that.
Well, thanks Captain Obvious. Statements like that are technically true, but how helpful are they for contributing to a conversation?
I don't think that's true, but I suppose then we'd have a debate over what "work" is.
Well, we were having a discussion about renting vs. owning which you seemed to understand were two different things.
greedy people have this weird argument that the rest of humanity shares their mental illness of worshiping money.
Wow finally someone else with a level-headed take. Careful though, that kind of thinking doesn't do well here
Landlords are parasites. Period.
How do you mean "your proposal"?
Do you mean this post on Lemmy? Cause I'd vote for someone running for public office with that as their platform pertaining to the housing situation/crisis
Shit, I’d vote for that person, too.
Alas, I have zero interest in running for any public office.
Funny, that: with notable exceptions, of course, it’s generally the busy-body, loud-mouthed, ideologically-possessed control-freaks who seek any sort of political power. Sensible people tend to mind their own goddamned business, until the politicians and wingnuts force our hands to finally get involved.
-Douglas Adams
You'd vote for a president running on a platform they would have zero authority to enact?
I didn't specify president per se.
Politicians in most modern governments, of course, aren't emperors who issue edicts and instantly enact sweeping change.
The imaginary politician in this scenario would run what that platform expressing the ideal. They then try to get those policies enacted against the opposition, which is both the inertia of the bureaucracy and opposing political winds.
You saying the imaginary person running for president with that platform couldn't snap their fingers and put it in place doesn't mean they wouldn't steer the government in that direction, thats almost always the best we can do and I don't think we should give up because the change we want isnt immediate
I mean, 0 new apartments would be built
Why? Its not like apartments are built by private industry. Not any lasting ones at least.
What? Of course they are
None of the good ones that have lasted. Only disposable trash that needs to be nearly entirely rebuilt every 50 years.
This is the opposite in the US. Government housing, when it was even attempted, was concrete trash, left to rot for decades.
You've discovered the problem with organising an economic system around profit
Home values themselves would tank.
I imagine there would be far fewer people willing to pay thousands of dollars for a mortgage when rent is only $100 and maintenance is someone else's problem. Hell, home maintenance and repairs alone are well more than that.
Then maybe we could adjust our zoning laws and take better advantage of the land available. Houses aren't very effective use of land.
It would be a crisis for renters. Land owners by definition already have a place to stay, but the second you implement price controls you're going to see the rental market go into convulsions. The correct solution is to Just Tax Land.
There you go
Yep, this is already a solved problem.
About 60% of the people in Vienna live in public housing and its one of the best places in the world to live.
Tons of people in this thread are running around coming up with Rube Goldberg schemes of incentive structures and legal frameworks when the problem is really not that complicated.
Well sure, people would stop renting in protest, and you’d have to tax unoccupied spaces at high rates to compensate.
It would crash the real estate market, which arguably needs to die since availability is artificially scarce due to wealthy hoarders.
Doing just this would help quite a lot today. A bunch of properties sit vacant because it's cheaper to just pay the taxes and let the property appreciate than it is to bother with renting.
We had rent control apartments for most of the 20th century and the market was just fine.