Reason I’m asking is because I have an aunt that owns like maybe 3 - 5 (not sure the exact amount) small townhouses around the city (well, when I say “city” think of like the areas around a city where theres no tall buildings, but only small 2-3 stories single family homes in the neighborhood) and have these houses up for rent, and honestly, my aunt and her husband doesn’t seem like a terrible people. They still work a normal job, and have to pay taxes like everyone else have to. They still have their own debts to pay. I’m not sure exactly how, but my parents say they did a combination of saving up money and taking loans from banks to be able to buy these properties, fix them, then put them up for rent. They don’t overcharge, and usually charge slightly below the market to retain tenants, and fix things (or hire people to fix things) when their tenants request them.
I mean, they are just trying to survive in this capitalistic world. They wanna save up for retirement, and fund their kids to college, and leave something for their kids, so they have less of stress in life. I don’t see them as bad people. I mean, its not like they own multiple apartment buildings, or doing excessive wealth hoarding.
Do leftists mean people like my aunt too? Or are they an exception to the “landlords are bad” sentinment?
Free money is not a thing… Except for people who do nothing that anybody wants to trade for money, and then it’s their entitlement and fuck everyone else?
And yes everyone deserves housing, food, healthcare, and a shot at happiness. But taking something for nothing on the backs of people with more to offer than you and then being an ungrateful dick about it saying you just deserve it is pretty off-putting. Let’s all share and make sure everybody gets a shake, but JFC be gracious and say thank you if you are on the take of the system. Putting money in real estate by a college campus is not the same as buying up every new house on the market in an area, I just want a place to put my money that isn’t going to go tits up before I can put my kids through college.
Some people don’t have shit to offer society, and some of those people ARE rich. Some of them are not rich, and gotta have a big fucking pair of nuts to throw around words like “leech”.
Tbh I generally empathize there, but it’s a bad argument for passive incomes. It sounds like the claim is about an unstable monetary system, not that landlording isn’t a passive income. If you don’t like that your money isn’t safe, that’s one thing – but different from this thing.
“Leech” is selected because they suck blood, which (figuratively speaking) is exactly what passive incomes do to other people, in particular for things like housing. It is a strange claim to say that “everyone deserves housing”, but then to hedge it by claiming some people have a good excuse to take advantage of a broken system. You’ll find far more landlords taking “something for nothing” than you will tenants.
So where does the money go then?
It’s leeching to landlord. It’s leeching to put it in the market to get passive income. There’s some magical point where it’s too much money to keep in a bank account by either FDIC or people saying “bro there are homeless folks on the street!”
If you have money in any quantity, it makes no sense not to put it to work. I can take it out and out it in a mattress in my house for safe keeping, but functionally that’s stupid. There are plenty of people who aren’t trying to screw anybody who have more money than makes ends meet AND are onboard with the same causes, but for some reason we gotta do a scarlett L if they put it in real estate?
For the I have less than 1M but more than 100K crowd, I don’t know what the general population of this thread expects. This is the wealthiest most of us can ever hope to be. It’s not by any means fuck you money, but it sure gets fuck you treatment.
All fair points.
I don’t think there is a good answer to this question. But if we agree that the system overall is broken (which maybe we do?), then we should expect things like this. There isn’t a good answer because the system itself is broken.
Why is it broken? Because things like passive income have been accepted for so long. Because regulation has gone out the window and corporations can do whatever they want. Because we have a real estate mogul as President-Elect. Lots of reasons to point to.
RE “fuck you treatment”, I’ll also mention: I do not believe that every landlord taking advantage of passive income is ill-intentioned. As you have alluded, there are reasons which don’t involve wanting to take part in, ultimately, limiting access to housing. The grand trick of the system is convincing good people that those reasons are not endemic, and that they don’t ultimately support the interests of the overlords.
I think we can absolutely agree to the fact that the system is broken.
I would love help to fix it, but I have to operate in it for the time being. I even want to play on the leftist team, but I find it pretty unsatisfying though to get spit on by the rest of the team you know?
This post really kinda summarizes it for me. Regular people trying to make it? Nah fuck em. You’re the same as big asshole real estate. Man that sucks to read and it makes me indignant. It’s a totally shit thing to hear when I’m ready to give something for nothing because people just deserve it, you know? I don’t even own a second property and it makes me salty.
All I want to do is save so I can help my kids through college and maybe buy a house where they can have a flat piece of ground for a swing set and to throw a ball around. If I can give extra I will, but dammit threads like this really want to paint people like me as assholes.
I do not prefer it.
Yeah, this resonates with me too.
Again, I’m not talking about intents, just what I see are clear-cut observations about the system and where it draws people / forces? people into.
All I can say is: it’s also designed such that you won’t have another choice. Protecting your own interests means taking advantage of those of others. And in that sense, it will seem deeply unfair if you are simply trying to do right for yourself and your family by a problematic method.
To me, it sounds like another example to speak out against the system.
Thanks. This is a real perspective changer of a thread for me.
Well that’s really good to hear. I’m not trying to spread hate, and I know people have different experiences than me, so I love to hear these other viewpoints. I totally agree that shit is fucked and I think that has affected us in different ways.
You have made a very good case here that resonates strongly with me
Where is rhe line between “us” and “them”?
Is it leftist vs liberal? Lib vs conservative?
No. It’s all of “us” vs the them that are in the 1%