• Hot Saucerman
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    10 months ago

    Happy Fake Labor Day to the Americans, because their government wants to hide real labor day from their citizens so they don’t have to educate them about the Haymarket Affair.

    Labor Day being in September is absolutely about erasing labor history. If more people knew labor history, more people would understand why All Cops Are Bastards.

      • Hot Saucerman
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        1210 months ago

        According to others in the thread, you should have known your whole life about the Wikipedia article on it! Duh! /s

      • mub
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        510 months ago

        I sort of knew about this but not the details. Reading that article shows just how far America has failed to come in 50 years.

    • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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      2310 months ago

      You are correct, the American website Wikipedia definitely does not have an article on Haymarket

      • Hot Saucerman
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        10 months ago

        The average American has a seventh grade reading level (with 54% of the population with less than a sixth grade reading level), and you expect them to be educated enough to 1. know what it is and 2. look for a Wikipedia article on it?

        Jesus, half this fucking country doesn’t even live in reality anymore. Somehow, they’re supposed to just know that it’s on Wikipedia.

        • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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          1510 months ago

          So you want like some mandatory Ludovico Technique for this piece of information, or what? There’s literally a library of Congress article. It has been part of AP US history for as long as I can remember. I’m not even sure what point you are trying to make. That there are tons of wilfully ignorant people in the US (true)? Or that this piece of history has been censored (objectively false)?

          • Hot Saucerman
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            10 months ago

            Erasure is different than censorship, and I think you’re intelligent enough to know that. I took that AP history class, and it was super biased against the workers, so that’s kind of a joke to reference.

            Also, if we’re talking about a country with a seventh grade average reading level, we’re mostly talking about people who have never taken an AP fucking US history class.

            Choosing the September date is part and parcel to why more people don’t know about it, because it’s not generally part of the public consciousness or conversation. That’s called erasure, not censorship.

            • Zuberi 👀
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              10 months ago

              If it was an AP class, that shits not getting to the ears of who really needs it most.

              I would argue that it’s completely erased in most States

              • Hot Saucerman
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                1110 months ago

                I mean we’re talking about a country that is literally in the process of redefining the history of slavery and running with “but the slaves learned valuable skills!” Yeah, I’m trying to meet these people at their level, but it’s clear that in huge swaths of the country, it isn’t talked about, period.

          • @robotrash@lemmy.robotra.sh
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            1410 months ago

            More that the US has successfully managed to censor entire swaths of history by limiting education (especially in red states) and ensuring that critical thought is not taught or enforced in any meaningful capacity. This is all totally intentional and verifiable. The information is there, but people are literally not ever taught (in academia) to think critically and seek answers to things they are unsure of. It’s mostly just memorization until you get the churned to the next year of memorization and if you do dare question any of it you get shit on by peers and teachers alike for being a know it all. It’s rare that you find people willing to foster curiosity in children which ultimately blooms into people eating up whatever they’re told as truth.

      • Franzia
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        1310 months ago

        I had a great public education and this one of the very few things that wasn’t mentioned.

    • MxM111
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      1210 months ago

      It was reasonable at the time to separate celebration of labor from Haymarket massacre, where an anarchist through a bomb into otherwise peaceful labor rally killing both the police and the civilian with many workers being injured and triggering the riot. The labor leaders in US then decided to make labor day to be not associated with these bloody events, which have little relationship with the labor movement itself. Not sure why you refer here to ACAB, the policemen were victims here.

      • Hot Saucerman
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        10 months ago

        At the McCormick reaper plant, a long-simmering strike erupted in violence on May 3, and police fired at strikers, killing at least two. Anarchists called a protest meeting at the West Randolph Street Haymarket, advertising it in inflammatory leaflets, one of which called for “Revenge!”

        The crowd gathered on the evening of May 4 on Des Plaines Street, just north of Randolph, was peaceful, and Mayor Carter H. Harrison, who attended, instructed police not to disturb the meeting. But when one speaker urged the dwindling crowd to “throttle” the law, 176 officers under Inspector John Bonfield marched to the meeting and ordered it to disperse.

        Then someone hurled a bomb at the police, killing one officer instantly. Police drew guns, firing wildly. Sixty officers were injured, and eight died; an undetermined number of the crowd were killed or wounded.

        But sure, the cops who were told not to show up, and then showed up when they were angry that people were pissed that they murdered workers, they deservedly got a bomb in their faces. Cops are always a bunch of authoritarian pieces of shit who can’t stand being criticized for being the violent fucking thugs they are.

        • MxM111
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          910 months ago

          Cops are always a bunch of authoritarian pieces of shit who can’t stand being criticized for being the violent fucking thugs they are.

          Such blanket statements about all the cops is intellectual dishonesty at best. While there are shitty people working in all professions, and having some police officers shitty means very bad things can happen, the majority of the force is not that, as I am sure you aware. Yes, structural changes are needed, but this is not the same as calling all of them as bunch of authoritarian pieces of shit. There is crime in this country, and police does have its function and is needed by society.

          • Hot Saucerman
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            10 months ago

            Just admit you were wrong. Just say “Actually, you’re right, the cops were committing violence against striking workers first.” It’s not that hard.

            No need to split hairs or change the subject.

            • MxM111
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              10 months ago

              Not on May 4. And I did not change the subject - you did with the ACAB statement.

              To the topic: The bomber was anarchist. Labor was not behind this attack and wanted to distant itself from it. Thus they selected the September.

              • Hot Saucerman
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                10 months ago

                You’re really dedicated here to handwaving away the violence committed by the police before the bombing and also handwaving away that the cops were asked by the Mayor to not interfere. Maybe, just maybe, if the pigs hadn’t fucking showed up, it would have never happened.

                It’s also handwaving away that only 2 of the 8 men put to death for the bombing were actually at the Haymarket event, and it was never conclusively proven that any of them built the bomb. They also never proved conclusively who threw it, but they put 8 men to death over it.

                Also, it’s handwaving away the brutal crackdown on union organizers afterwards. Maybe, just maybe, the reason the labor organizations acquiesced and distanced themselves is because all the businesses, property owners, newspapers, and government were busy vilifying them. How much choice did the labor movement actually have in the date?

                There was disagreement among labor unions at this time about when a holiday celebrating workers should be, with some advocating for continued emphasis of the September march-and-picnic date while others sought the designation of the more politically charged date of May 1. Conservative Democratic President Grover Cleveland was one of those concerned that a labor holiday on May 1 would tend to become a commemoration of the Haymarket affair and would strengthen socialist and anarchist movements that backed the May 1 commemoration around the globe. In 1887, he publicly supported the September Labor Day holiday as a less inflammatory alternative, formally adopting the date as a United States federal holiday through a law that he signed in 1894.

                So the labor movement is Grover Cleveland? And so it’s pretty clear it was because they wanted to prevent socialists from strengthening their numbers. Give me a break. Stop trying to rewrite history and get that boot out of your slobbery mouth.

                Also, finally, stop repeating “anarchist” like it’s supposed to be an insult. “Not on May 4th” is the definition of splitting hairs, chucklefuck.

          • @mimic_kry
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            2010 months ago

            Look, I kind of agree with your sentiment, but the historical event in question did involve what the commenter you’re replying to insists happened. I that instance, all the cops involved were assholes. In that era, law enforcement was tied to power by necessity, since only the powerful (read: rich) could start townships and such and afford to pay for law enforcers.

            But now? Things are a little complex. This is on purpose, as the powerful class has continually meddled in police affairs through lobbying and unions (ironically the police union is hilariously well funded due to rich interests wanting am army to keep the poors in line), and we’re (in the US) trending back towards police basically being an official branch of Pinkertons.

            Still, I’ve met good cops. Genuinely good people. Last year, I had a flat (entirely my fault. In CA) tire and a passing motorcycle cop stopped to help. He not only helped me replace it with a spare, he offered to call and pay for a tow truck for me. Truly a kind man, and believed in his social position perhaps more than the average.

            But yeah, that’s not how it is in most places. Even in CA you have sheriff gangs, prison guard gangs, corruption, you name it. Like I said, the US as a whole is generally trending backwards as of late.

            Anyways we need nuance. But we’re increasingly approaching a world where nuance is shunned or laughed at as missing the point, or being needlessly picky. Not only that, people seem even more desperate to feed into tribal groupings. Even on lemmy, you’re either pro US or pro China/Russia. It’s like people think they need to pick a side.

            Sorry, just needed to rant I guess. I just hope we manage to keep the planet alive while we figure our bullshit out.

            • Hot Saucerman
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              10 months ago

              Cheers mate, thanks for the nuanced take.

              I don’t think most folks like me reject the idea that good cops could exist, it’s more that we’re so aware of how many bad cops exist (at least in the US), it’s one of those situations where good cops are run off the force (or worse, targeted and murdered before they can testify) or put up with so much bad behavior themselves that over time, they’ve become a bad cop, because they’re not stopping other bad cops. Even if they’re nice to citizens, if they’re covering for crimes of their fellow cops, they’re a bad cop. The fact that more cops aren’t standing up against things like qualified immunity when it’s painfully being abused or civil forfeiture when it’s abused shows exactly how little they care for the public and how much they care for their right to abuse the public without recourse.

              Unfortunately, that leaves most cops in the USA falling under the umbrella of ACAB.

              Oh, and the whole 40% of cops self-reported as beating their spouses. On top of the whole “Killology” mess that trains them to be an occupying force in their own cities. It’s really hard to make excuses for them at this point.

    • Archlinuxforever
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      110 months ago

      Mentioning America on a post that has nothing to do with America specifically? Yeah, this type of thing is ripped straight off of Reddit.

  • @RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    18310 months ago

    One thing I’ve learned on reddit is that you never tell people on platforms like that or even this one that you’re a landlord. You could be the best landlord, never raise a reasonable rent, keep a well and promptly maintained property, and LanDlOrDs aRe The ScUm of ThE Earth!!1! is all you hear.

    • @BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      10710 months ago

      The very idea of being a landlord is pretty evil though? Like in a housing shortage you’re hoarding property and profiting off it.

      • @TheSambassador@lemmy.world
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        6910 months ago

        So while I generally agree with your sentiment, there are some obvious ways that sometime could be an ethical landlord.

        What if you have a house that’s too big, so you convert a floor into an apartment? You’re adding to the number of housing units available. Should you be forced to sell a portion of your house/building to whoever wants to live there? Or should you be able to rent it out to someone at a reasonable rate? Do we want rules that discourage people from potentially adding units to the market?

        I feel like the “all landlords are evil” narrative is way too simplistic, and that simplistic view turns off people who would otherwise support reasonable limits on landlords and housing ownership. Like, it’s obvious that we need limits and taxes on people who own multiple properties, and it’s obvious that there are companies that exploit renters and drive up prices, but it’s all more complicated than just “landlords evil lol”.

        • @Mawks@lemmy.world
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          2210 months ago

          I rent my property because it’s the only way I could’ve bought it at my age and I use that money to pay for the mortgage of it while I live somewhere I don’t want to (under parent’s wing in a crappy city) but angry people rarely if ever consider all scenarios

          • @Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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            4410 months ago

            Someone else is litteraly paying your mortgage for you because you cannot afford it otherwise. How out of touch do you have to be to say that with a straight face?

            • @Mawks@lemmy.world
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              1410 months ago

              Thanks for the insult and making my point, I can afford it but in my country you have to make a downpayment of 20% of the value and that ate into my savings, I want to recover some of my savings before moving to another city and eating into those savings more, plus I have to wait a year for my wife’s job, is it wrong to rent it for that year before I move?

              • @Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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                2110 months ago

                How am I making your point? You litteraly said that you could not afford the place, so you rented it out instead.

                Someone is paying your mortgage for you because you cannot afford it, and then you will kick that person out when you want to. That person will then have to move again in a market that gets worse by the month.

                I’d say that is pretty bad all around.

                • @Mawks@lemmy.world
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                  910 months ago

                  How can I not afford the place? This is just to make my life easier I would not artificially make it harder on me if I can rent it to some europeans that will stay on a sabatical in my country.

                  What is my other choice? Leave the place abandoned for a year until I move? Prices get worse every year and I found a great opportunity to buy now instead of wait until I could buy it without a bank loan. Prices doubled because I waited so this time I don’t want to wait. My mortgage is 25% of my salary that’s not bad is it?

            • @aikixd@lemmy.ml
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              810 months ago

              How did you come to this conclusion? If someone is renting it means they they can’t pay for mortgage. Otherwise they would’ve done so. He said, that he needed to make a 20% payment to even get the mortgage. Idk how much money that was for him, but where I live that would be around 130k$. Clearly not everyone has that kind of cash.

              And what’s your solution? Disallow renting properties for which mortgage wasn’t posted in full?

                • @aikixd@lemmy.ml
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                  110 months ago

                  So disallowing renting. So you don’t control your property, which means you don’t own it but lease it.

                  This is problematic, since not being able to open your house is worse than having difficulties with obtaining it. I agree that generally having some people own a lot of housing units is bad, but not being able to own a house means communism. And not as a scare, but quite literally, as in definition.

      • @Catsrules@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Your assuming everyone wants to own property over renting.

        House and property ownership has a lot of responsibility and expenses involved. Your water heater breaks well there is $1000+ your roof needs replacing there is 30K. All of that goes away when you rent as it isn’t your responsibility.

        If you own property it can be harder and more risky to relocate. I know a few people that bought in 2007 and then were stuck as they couldn’t afford to move because they were upsidedown on their house.

        Not saying renting is all sunshine and roses. I personally would rather own then rent but home ownership isn’t for everyone.

        But I do think it is a major problem when you have a few companies buying up all property so no one else can afford it. But I don’t think being a Landlord is inherently evil.

          • @Catsrules@lemmy.ml
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            610 months ago

            In a perfect world sure, government is fully funded and runs smoothly people care about the everyone etc… etc…

            But in reality I really would be very hesitant to want to live in that world. It is very scary to have a single organization control all your housing. At least with the way it currently is if you don’t like your landlord you can go somewhere else. If the government owns everything your kind of stuck dealing with the same organization no matter where you go. Governments are not immune to corruption and can screw you over even worse in some cases then an organization.

            In my opinion the best solution is many private citizens and small rental companies combined with government enforcing laws protecting both parties. However one big issues I am seeing is huge companies buy up everything in a small area and build a monopolies on rentals. That isn’t good either.

            • @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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              510 months ago

              Governments are not immune to corruptions, but in the democracy there are ways to influence the government. Private companies that buy all the property are doing the corruption by design, in this case it’s not even called corruption, it’s normal profit-driven business, it’s supposed to be like that. And you can’t do shit about that, there is no ways to influence them

              • @Catsrules@lemmy.ml
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                210 months ago

                And you can’t do shit about that, there is no ways to influence them

                You influence them via your business and local laws. That is why I specifically mentioned that the best solution is having multiple small companies. If you have problems with one you go to another one. Just like what you do with any other company. Yeah it stuck to have to move but it is better move and get a better situation then be stuck in a bad situation.

          • @papertowels
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            210 months ago

            I actually recently learned about housing co-ops. Basically an apartment complex led by a committee of residents. It’s non profit high density housing, so you can buy a share (meaning rent an apartment) at much lower rates. As an example, in my area the co-ops are at 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of traditional rentals. The downside is, from what I hear, the folks managing the apartment complex can be even worse than an HOA if you’re unlucky.

            IMO this is the sustainable way forward for housing.

        • @papertowels
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          1210 months ago

          Threw down over 20k in fixes so far in our first year of homeownership, and due to interest rates and closing costs, we don’t really have the opportunity to move anywhere else without taking a significant financial hit.

          You bet it’s not for everyone.

          • @Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            Yeah but you know what, you always have a home. It is very unlikely the bank will ever foreclose on you, they rarely do that, even in 2008 almost nobody lost their homes.

            But me, I lose my home on my landlords whim. At any given time I may have just 30 days to pack my life up and fuck off, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

            You have stable permanent shelter. Don’t undervalue that just because you have to maintain it.

              • @Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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                210 months ago

                Rights that allow me just 30 days to pack up and leave.

                Right now the news in my area is rife with “renovictions” and landlords kicking people to “move family in” but they never have to give any proof of those things. There is regulation, but there is no enforcement.

                • @papertowels
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                  110 months ago

                  That certainly sucks. Can you sue for wrongful eviction? I know that’s a thing where I’m at.

            • @papertowels
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              10 months ago

              Definitely not undervaluing it, however it’s worth pointing out that 20k is over a years worth of rent for a similar property where I’m at.

              Are you renting month to month? Typically where I’m from you sign 1 year long rental agreements, so that is surprising to hear. Additionally, in some states, if the tenant has been living in a location for over a year, the owner has to give two months notice.

              At the end of the day, being financially locked down to a location vs having a “permanent” home, as well as having the opportunity to move wherever you want vs having no permanent home are two sides of the same coins.

              • @Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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                210 months ago

                You don’t have the opportunity to move where you want when you’re paying 50% or more of your takehome on rent. As an owner you have way more opportunity because you have equity you can leverage if you want to move. Renters have no equity.

                It is the furthest thing from two sides of the same coin.

                • @papertowels
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                  10 months ago

                  That sounds like an income vs cost of living issue to me. It wouldn’t really be feasible to move until many, many years in if you were making mortgage payments of 50% or more of your takehome.

                  Ngl in this imagined scenario where shelter is taking up 50% of your income, you’re kinda fucked regardless of renting or owning. There’s no way you’d be able to save enough money to replace the roof (25k?) Replace aging sewer pipes (9k to reline, maybe 15k to replace?) Or replace the windows (haven’t gotten quotes for this yet, but I’m dreading it). You’ll have to get financing for those fixes, so that’s even more interest.

                  However if you get a better job elsewhere, it is far easier to take advantage of that opportunity if you rent.

                  You have no equity when renting, but you also haven’t spent a cent on maintenance, and you don’t have to deal with closing costs, taxes, and whatnot.

          • @Pixel@lemmy.sdf.org
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            610 months ago

            You are basically insuring yourself against those expenses, which has a premium. If you are good with money and have a savings, you can afford not to pay that premium. Not everyone is in that position or smart enough with money. So many people are bad with money, that stuff really should be taught in school.

          • @steltek@lemm.ee
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            310 months ago

            But you’re not researching, hiring, and scheduling a contractor to fix it. You don’t need to become an expert in long term planning and anticipate problems. You’re not mentally cataloging basic maintenance tasks like when you last painted the siding or mowed the lawn.

            Home ownership vs renting goes beyond equity and I know a lot of people who were happy renting because it gave them a huge chunk of free time back for trips, hobbies, etc.

          • @KarmaTrainCaboose@lemmy.world
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            910 months ago

            What if I build a house on a piece of land I own and want to rent it out?

            The second construction is completed I’m all of a sudden a scumbag for privatizing someone else’s right to shelter? Even though it’s a house I built on my land? Doesn’t make much sense to me.

            • krolden
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              210 months ago

              Why would you build a house and not live in it?

              • @KarmaTrainCaboose@lemmy.world
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                110 months ago

                As I stated in the very first sentence: to rent it out.

                I suppose your response will be “but renting it out is bad! We should make that illegal because you’re extracting wealth from the tenant!”

                Then I will say to you “fine, I suppose I will not build that house at all”

                This is how you get a take a housing shortage in the US and make it far, far worse.

                • krolden
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                  110 months ago

                  Well you’ve just got it all figured out eh?

            • @Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
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              210 months ago

              You’re moving the goal posts here. Did you buy the land for the purpose of building property? Bad. Did you convert arable land into housing? Bad. Was it a rocky bad piece of land that you invested in to build something more out of it? Good. Housing policy isn’t binary but in most cases the current personal private multiownership model doesn’t help anyone. My perspective is no one should be allowed to own more than one house, and if so anything beyond the first house should be heavily taxed.

              • @KarmaTrainCaboose@lemmy.world
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                110 months ago

                Buying land for the purpose of building property is bad? I think any policy that discourages development of additional housing is probably not going to be great for house prices. Or if you’re handing out houses in a lottery system, it won’t be great for housing supply at least.

                • @Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
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                  110 months ago

                  I’ll give you an example; my country has food insecurity, rich people take arable farmland and build suburbs on that land instead of infilling the city downtown which has single detached homes less than a kilometre from the centre of the city. Do you think that this is a good thing they’re buying this farmland for suburbs, or a bad thing?

          • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            610 months ago

            So they would still have a landlord it would be the government instead and people would be pissed when the government increases rent or throws people out because they’re destroying the place or not paying their rent…

            • @Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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              810 months ago

              I’d much prefer to have social housing than slumlords that want to make a profit on the rented space while also keeping the value of the building.

              • @kbotc@lemmy.world
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                610 months ago

                So, how does the government decide who gets beachfront property and who lives behind the power plant?

                • @Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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                  310 months ago

                  The same way that it works now? The unit is for rent, you take an appointment and the first person that qualifies get it.

                  This is not the gotcha you think it is. What so different than the current system?

        • @CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          910 months ago

          Make it illegal to rent out property you don’t live on.

          If you want to rent out your basement, or build a seperate dwelling on your property then you are adding to the available housing and can rent that. Most people would rather build their own equity given the chance, and this would provide rentals for temporary living situations.

      • Pelicanen
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        1610 months ago

        What’s the alternative here? Only letting big companies without any ethical regards rent housing?

        Sure, there’s a good argument to be made that housing is essential to survive and as such should be provided by the government, but that’s not the world we live in. In this society, it’s likely someone is going to have to rent it out and I’d rather it be a person who actually gives a shit and can be held responsible rather than some faceless corporation.

        • @willeypete23@reddthat.com
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          410 months ago

          Simple. Only individuals can buy single family homes. No renting of single family homes. And remove zoning restrictions to allow for more multifamily units.

          • Oh hoo hoo, when you talk about removing zoning restrictions things get hairy fast. The city of Houston has no zoning restrictions and from what I can tell (I’m not from there) some people love it and some people hate it. Apartments bring with it noise and generally clutter an area. You need nee infrastructure to manage an apartment, the tall place blocks the sun. Now if you’re in a city then you still have to think about where those apartments may be built. If they’re cheap and in a nice neighborhood then they’ll be snagged up so quickly. If they’re in a bad neighborhood then no one is going to want them. So what zoning restrictions would you recommend removing?

        • @Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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          310 months ago

          Actually in my experience faceless corporations tend to follow the rules much more stringently.

      • @grue@lemmy.ml
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        1510 months ago

        Like in a housing shortage you’re hoarding property and profiting off it.

        Housing shortages are caused by bad government policy: namely, low-density zoning. Direct your anger towards the entity that deserves it, and make them fix their fuck-up.

        (Note: I’m not making some kind of Libertarian “all government is bad” argument here. I’m saying that in this specific case, the laws need to be changed.)

        • @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1010 months ago

          There is enough empty property to house every homeless person 30 times. Some of those empty property are summer houses and shit, but even then the problem isn’t the lack of housing, it’s treating homes as a mean to make money out of people’s basic needs. You can build the best walkable city in the world, but if it will be bought by professional landlords immediately it will not solve shit.

      • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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        1210 months ago

        No it’s absolutely not. Your comment displays a complete ignorance of the business.

            • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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              1010 months ago

              what do you do as a landlord? Like when you come into work during your weird landlord schedule they always seem to have - what do you actually do?

              • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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                810 months ago

                Being a landlord means being self-employed. There’s no set 8-5 M-F schedule like there is when working in an office.

                It could mean meeting a contractor at 7:30am on a weekday or it could mean working on the weekend. Or staying at a property until 11pm painting to get it ready for a tenant.

                • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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                  910 months ago

                  There’s no set 8-5 M-F schedule like there is when working in an office.

                  that’s why I mentioned the weird schedule they always have. My current one has some shit like Saturday 1 pm to 4 pm and then they don’t reopen until Tuesday at noon then are closed again on Wednesday. Like what the fuck.

                  I never see my landlord doing shit like that. Just show people to new apartments usually.

                  I work from home and look outside. I see people move in and move out all the time. I rarely see the guy in charge doing anything other than handing over some keys.

          • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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            410 months ago

            Another person who doesn’t know what they’re talking about who is anti-business.

              • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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                310 months ago

                Well then it doesn’t make sense because being a landlord has nothing to do with exploitation.

                • @jaackf@lemm.ee
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                  810 months ago

                  I mean, even the dictionary spells it out pretty clearly.

                  “Explotation: The act of using someone unfairly for your own advantage”

                • @nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works
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                  410 months ago

                  it has everything to do with maximizing rents and minimizing costs at the expensive of the people living in those properties. There is a reason why there are rules about increasing rents and protests / laws against demovicitions.

            • @WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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              510 months ago

              What’s more pro-business than wanting the people doing all the work to get paid without the leech shareholders that contribute nothing taking all the incentive for that work?

            • @CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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              610 months ago

              Purchasing something that there is a limited amount of in order to profit off someone else wanting it. Sure sounds the same to me…

              No, wait, they are different. Concert tickets are necessary for survival.

              • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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                310 months ago

                This is a textbook case of “I don’t understand that thing, so I’m going to irrationally fear and hate that thing”. Making a comparison of two things that are completely different displays that lack of understanding.

                • @CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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                  310 months ago

                  This is a textbook example of “I can’t defend a thing, so I’m just going to say you’re wrong for disliking without offering any actual arguments for it.” Making no statements other than “No, your wrong!” Displays your lack of justification.

      • @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Best case scenario, rent is low and only covers taxes and building upkeep. Then you’re essentially getting a zero interest loan since property is valuable and it’s being loaned for free.

        • @BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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          2310 months ago

          Rent is obscene virtually everywhere. Rent should not preclude someone from saving money towards owning their own home, and it really does.

          • Hot Saucerman
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            10 months ago

            Also, the available, functionally livable land is going to quickly get smaller with climate change. So the more viable land is hoarded, the more people are pushed into desperate and bad living situations. (For example, who are the people with homes on coastlines affected by rising sea levels going to actually sell their soon-to-be-underwater property to? Won’t it effectively be valueless under water?)

            https://www.semafor.com/article/11/02/2022/climate-change-alters-way-of-life-in-michigans-upper-peninsula

            Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is being gentrified because it’s an area least likely to be affected by climate change. A lot of the mega-rich are buying property around that area.

          • @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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            I don’t disagree. Obscenely high rent is common and bad. That means the interest on the loan that you are getting is extremely high. The solutions would be subsiding it by government owned housing, allowing new housing (especially high density) to be built, and discouraging people from living in cities. I think we should do both the first two.

          • @brick@lemm.ee
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            310 months ago

            My previous landlord was amazing. Dealt with every issue that arose in a timely fashion, never raised my rent (which was already very fair based on the location), and even installed central AC after my first kid was born since the house was old and could get pretty hot in the summers.

            And she wasn’t the only good landlord I’ve had.

            Sorry your experience has been bad with renting, and I agree that most landlords are terrible (I’ve had plenty of those as well), but just because you haven’t ever had a good landlord doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

        • @CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          1510 months ago

          If the rent is covering the taxes and upkeep then the renter is paying it anyway through a middle man.

          If the rent isn’t covering costs then the landlord is bad at this and won’t be a landlord for long.

      • @OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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        510 months ago

        No, certain corporate landlords, like Blackrock, is even. Most small-scale landlords are not inherently evil because they rent out their properties. Having a few is not “hoarding.”

      • The vast majority of landlords are normal people renting out a portion of the home they live in as well.

        What you are asking is that they should close those doors or have the rental be free? Either of those situations is bunk.

    • @OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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      5710 months ago

      Small-scale landlords also usually have full time jobs and use rent to supplement their income. Not every landlord is just rolling in cash.

      • @CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee
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        1710 months ago

        I work at a credit union where we deal with a lot of smaller investors and many of them have properties where they aren’t breaking even on a cash flow basis. But they are using the losses to lower their taxable income while building equity elsewhere. They are (from tenants I’ve heard from) good landlords. Lately we’ve been dealing with a lot of realtors that are buying up properties and that just doesn’t sit well with me so I’m looking to change careers and get more into C&I and CRE rather than SFR investments. Being able to cash out 7.25 weeks of accrued vacation time I haven’t been able to take too is a big plus.

      • @nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works
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        910 months ago

        In a lot of places if you own any land you are a millionaire, it’s coming to the point that if you own a condo you are a millionaire.

          • @nte@discuss.tchncs.de
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            810 months ago

            It’s true that “few hundred bucks” is enough to reach one million. But it is not for anybody. Let’s take 999 bucks, which is the maximum of “few hundred.”

            If you were to save 999 bucks and didn’t consider any interest or investments, it would take you approximately 84 years to accumulate one million dollars.

            However, it’s important to consider interest when planning for financial growth. Let’s assume an interest rate of 2%. Even with this interest, it would still take around 49 years to reach one million, and you’d also need to account for the impact of inflation, which can erode the value of your money over time.

            To achieve your financial goals more efficiently, you might need a higher interest rate or explore investment opportunities where your money can work for you, such as becoming a landlord…

          • @Crazypartypony@lemmy.world
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            410 months ago

            I think this is the most privileged comment I’ve read since I got to Lemmy. Congratulations on being incredibly sheltered and out of touch. /s

          • I Cast Fist
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            310 months ago

            A few hundred per month. Let’s do some math. Let’s say you work and earn some form of income for 35 years, or 420 months. If you save 500 every month, you’ll have a grand total of 210.000. That’s 790k off of a million. Even at 1k per month, you’re still less than halfway into being a millionaire.

            You need to have a consistent salary of over 2.380/month (28.5k/year) to accrue a total of 1 million during those 35 years. So, supposing you earn 5k a month (60k/year), and can put half of that into savings, yes, you can “become a millionaire” by the time you’re retiring.

          • @nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works
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            210 months ago

            Yeah I’m going to slave a large part of my entire life so I can own a house, so I can then rent it it in 50+ years. I’m sure by the time you save a million dollars the houses will be worth 3 million. They are already pushing 1.5 million in major cities.

      • @dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        810 months ago

        Being a landlord, making money off of the hard work of other people, and still having enough time to have a full time job “on the side” means you don’t need to be a landlord because it obviously isn’t an important job that you have to dedicate time and attention to.

    • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏
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      4710 months ago

      I’ve had shitty landlords and good ones. My current one hasn’t changed the rent price in 4 years, comes out same day or next day to deal with issues… to be honest I wish I could copy and paste my current landlord to my next place too 😭

      One of my old landlords tried to charge me for damage I didn’t cause… but guess who recorded every nook and cranny in 4K after accepting the keys, and used that footage to dispute and get my full deposit back 🤪🤪

      • @ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        1410 months ago

        My last landlord didn’t raise my rent for seven years. I was thankful until I moved out and he still hasn’t been able to re-rent the place after two years despite dropping the rent by $100. He just didn’t want to risk losing his prize schmuck lol.

        What I most hate is landlords who put an automatic 5% (or whatever) increase into an auto-renewing lease. It’s bullshit because their mortgage generally isn’t increasing like that.

    • @dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Why would someone become a landlord in the first place? You’re not born with a title deed in your hand, and if you were given income property by a family member, you’re still profiting off of the hard work of others. The only reason someone would choose to go out of their way to invest in rental properties is because they see an easier way of making money than having to go out and work for it like an honest person. “Mom and Pop landlords” aren’t a thing. If you have the funds to buy an entire second property, you aren’t just a “mom and pop”, youre in the 1%.

      • @zovits@lemmy.world
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        2110 months ago

        I’m sorry for your negative experiences, but please be mindful that not only your subjective world exists. I might have been extremely lucky, but all my previous rental places were maintained by nice folks.

        • young_broccoli
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          810 months ago

          Its not that the person themselves cant be “good” but the act of hoarding and limiting access to a basic human need, like shelter, to use it as leverage in order to extort profit from others is wrong.
          Landlord-ing is inherently bad it doesnt matter if the person doing it is the nicest person on earth.

        • @nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works
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          610 months ago

          “Nice folks” doesn’t mean shit if they are paying the absolute minimum to upkeep a building and never missing a chance to raise the rent. The overwhelming amount of landlords are the above.

          • @zovits@lemmy.world
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            110 months ago

            None of these points have applied to them. I get the feeling it might be a case of culture differences, maybe the toxic landlording mentioned in the meme is more prevalent in the US?

          • @zovits@lemmy.world
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            210 months ago

            My previous one hasn’t raised rent for five years, and even then he asked if it would be okay with us. Which it was, for even the raised rent was significantly below the market rate and he always responded quickly to any issues we have raised. He was a blue-collar worker who inherited a flat he didn’t want to sell, so rented it out to those who couldn’t afford to buy a property on their own.

            • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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              110 months ago

              You can click on the “Show context” button to see who I responded to in order to gauge the proper context of ethical landlord in this case.

          • @zovits@lemmy.world
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            110 months ago

            Sure he did, but he provided me with a place to live at, which otherwise I couldn’t have afforded. Just like any other service or goods provider.

    • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      2010 months ago

      Not just being a landlord, owning a property at all, no matter how much you paid and when, means you’re rich…

      As a couple we own a condo paid 85k in the early 2010s and a cottage paid 50k in 2020 (that was on the market for months)? I’ve had many users tell me I’ve got no business talking about the housing crisis because I’m privileged… Because the two of us are able to afford the mortgage on 135k in property???

      • @JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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        2110 months ago

        Considering I have a very good credit score and a full time job but the banks wouldn’t lend me that much regardless if I could find a shack for that little, yea, sounds like privilege to a lot of us out here.

        • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          1010 months ago

          You can have the best credit score ever, if you’re working minimum wage then you can’t expect to get a loan. I bought the condo with 10k down making about 40k/year to give you an idea…

    • @grayman@lemmy.world
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      2010 months ago

      Anyone with a mediocre amount of business sense or anyone that actually owns / owned (or pretends they own via a mortgage) real estate knows exactly how terribly difficult it is to just keep everything running.

      This alone explains why reddit and such have no damn clue why renting is so expensive.

    • @skulkingaround@sh.itjust.works
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      910 months ago

      As a landlord and someone who loves shenanigans, it’s been great. It’s never been easier to piss off dozens of people I don’t like at once.

      Like, sure dude, my owning a few houses is totally the reason your city that I don’t live in won’t build new housing to meet demand, and I totally enjoy spending all of my weekends doing manual labor fixing shit for my tenants.

    • GreenBottles
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      710 months ago

      never mind the fact that that landlord probably worked hard to buy his first property and subsequent properties to self-employ themselves in the first place

  • @SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org
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    7310 months ago

    I know landlords that work way fucking harder than I do, and I have a “real job”. I get that a lot of landlords are assholes but in the end this is the system and some are playing the game as fairly as they can (being reasonable, very rarely raising rent, attending to maintenance themselves and in a timely manner) while others are cheating (not maintaining the property, raising rent, forcing tenants to sign burdensome leases, etc). Stop lumping them together.

  • Zengen
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    6510 months ago

    All the landlords I know have more than 1 job. My boss is the landlord of 7 rental properties. He also owns a local breakfast diner and his ass is there every Sunday on that grill flipping eggs and bacon with his employees. He also owns a private security business. If one of the guards calls out sick. Its him that covers their shift. And he pays himself for those hours at the same wage he pays the employee hes covering.

    My uncle. Owns 2 rental properties. He also runs an electronics recycling business where he loads and hauls E-Waste and he does that and all the manual labor of it by himself.

    My old landlord. Young guy about 30. Boughtkmy building from the previous slumlord owner during the pandemic. Dropped 25k putting brand new stairs and decks on the building for safety. During a time where the average going rate on the market for a 1 bedroom apartment was 1100$ he chose to leave all of our rents at 700$ a month because he didn’t feel right about screwing people.

    I am not a landlord. I have no desire to be a landlord. But not every landlord is a lazy sack of shit.

  • @PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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    5310 months ago

    The good news here is that a lot of people don’t even know they’re landlords or are from another country. It’s not the rinky dink landlords we have to worry about, it’s the corporation landlords that are ruining everything.

    • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      4410 months ago

      My slumlord individual landlord was much worse than the corporate landlord I have right now. Mileage varies significantly between corporations that run rental companies. I’ve also had rental agencies that were shit.

      • @PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s not how they treat you but I’m glad you have a good one, it’s how they’re ruining the real estate market for people to purchase new homes. They buy all of the single family and rental properties for airBNBs or tear them down to build luxury only condos. Also, they’re not really luxury condos. Hopefully your city has anti slumlord laws as well.

        • Hot Saucerman
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          It’s also how they turn to technology to make it harder to really feel like you’re actually renting. Instead of keys, you have a door with a code, but you don’t control it, so if you’re even five minutes late with rent, they’ll change the code and lock you out. Just like with places like Google, it’s about removing humans and having a lot of this shit automated, despite how dehumanzing the automation is to the people who have to use such services. When you’re being fucked over and can’t even find a human to talk to, it’s dehumanizing.

            • Hot Saucerman
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              10 months ago

              At least that’s how it is in blue states and cities.

              I see you have never lived in a blue area with a Sheriff that refused to enforce things they don’t like. I lived through a COVID denying Sheriff getting so many cops killed from COVID that they had to shut down the local jail because too many cops and inmates were dying because bad ventilation and general refusal of the cops to take any type of masking or social distancing seriously.

              I mean, nationwide, COVID became the number one killer of cops during the pandemic.

              I mean fuck, right now in most major cities in Washington (Seattle/Tacoma) you have had cops admitting that they were refusing to respond to calls as a political act. Literally trying to make people afraid by not showing up.

              But sure, you can totally rely on the cops in these situations to show up and help. Especially in a reasonable amount of time. /s

          • @PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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            510 months ago

            Here in Seattle, they were caught price fixing all of the rents as well. Basically, they all used one software that was supposed to tell you what others are charging so you could adjust your prices. Instead, they would all use it to raise the prices at the same time. It’s an evil industry.

            • Hot Saucerman
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              10 months ago

              It’s an evil industry.

              People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. -Adam Smith

        • @Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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          What’s ruining the real estate market is the fact it’s literally illegal to build enough housing on the vast majority of urban land (same situation in Canada, too). Add in insane parking minimum laws, setback requirements, lot size minimums, etc., and what you get is artificial government-mandated ultra low-density sprawl.

          It’s the ultimate form of regulatory capture to protect the “investments” of speculators and homeowners. Typically under the guise of “protecting property values” or “protecting neighborhood character”. Just consider: who benefits most from artificially restricting new competition than the owners of existing housing? Restrict new supply so that you can see the value of what you already possess go to the moon… all at the expense of the rest of society, of course.

          If you have 9 homes for every 10 households, price will go up until one of those households is priced out of the market. If we built more and made there be 10 homes for every 9 households, landlords – corporate or not – would be stripped of their market power to raise rent.

          The evidence backs this up. Any new housing, even “luxury” or market-rate, improves affordability:

          New buildings decrease rents in nearby units by about 6% relative to units slightly farther away or near sites developed later, and they increase in-migration from low-income areas. We show that new buildings absorb many high-income households and increase the local housing stock substantially.

          And more flexible zoning helps contain rising rents:

          But what happens to rents after new homes are built? Studies show that adding new housing supply slows rent growth—both nearby and regionally—by reducing competition among tenants for each available home and thereby lowering displacement pressures. This finding from the four jurisdictions examined supports the argument that updating zoning to allow more housing can improve affordability.

          In all four places studied, the vast majority of new housing has been market rate, meaning rents are based on factors such as demand and prevailing construction and operating costs. Most rental homes do not receive government subsidies, though when available, subsidies allow rents to be set lower for households that earn only a certain portion of the area median income. Policymakers have debated whether allowing more market-rate—meaning unsubsidized—housing improves overall affordability in a market. The evidence indicates that adding more housing of any kind helps slow rent growth. And the Pew analysis of these four places is consistent with that finding. (See Table 1.)

          In addition, we can tax land:

          Land value taxes are generally favored by economists as they do not cause economic inefficiency, and reduce inequality.[2] A land value tax is a progressive tax, in that the tax burden falls on land owners, because land ownership is correlated with wealth and income.[3][4] The land value tax has been referred to as “the perfect tax” and the economic efficiency of a land value tax has been accepted since the eighteenth century.[1][5][6]

          It’s a progressive, essentially impossible to evade tax that incentivizes densification and development while disincentivizing real estate speculation. Oh, and it can’t be passed on tenants, both in theory and in practice.

          And even a milquetoast LVT – such as in the Australian Capital Territory – can have positive impacts:

          It reveals that much of the anticipated future tax obligations appear to have been already capitalised into lower land prices. Additionally, the tax transition may have also deterred speculative buyers from the housing market, adding even further to the recent pattern of low and stable property prices in the Territory. Because of the price effect of the land tax, a typical new home buyer in the Territory will save between $1,000 and $2,200 per year on mortgage repayments.

          !yimby@lemmy.world

          !justtaxland@lemmy.world

          • @PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            “Blah blah blah,” again? So you’re going to ignore that there is a shit ton of empty luxury homes and the price fixing? This isn’t my first rodeo, I’ve heard all of your arguments before and yes, they can be added into the mix but those aren’t the main focus.

            • Make it so airbnb’s can only be operated by an owner that lives on site and one other location and for 2 units total for that owner.
            • Corporations can only own a 20 unit (10-30, that number has to be researched) or more apartment building and then have to operate as a hotel if they’re running airbnbs. If condos or apartments, they have to provide all levels of income.
            • Condo or rental high rises being built can’t buy their way out of providing all income units.
            • No more price fixing or extreme legal consequences.

            I have found that the people calling for just changing the zoning laws usually have a bulldozer right behind their shoulder waiting to be sent.

            PS Trickle down housing doesn’t work. The end.

            • @Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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              Yes, there is price fixing. You know how that works? By artificially restricting competition through regulatory capture, aka restrictive zoning.

              All the evidence point to zoning reform and actually legally allowing things like missing middle housing to be effective ways to control rising rents. If you clicked on one of the above links, you’d see this table:

              Also recall from the same report:

              In all four places studied, the vast majority of new housing has been market rate, meaning rents are based on factors such as demand and prevailing construction and operating costs.

              https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2023/04/17/more-flexible-zoning-helps-contain-rising-rents

              You’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.

              I have found that the people calling for just changing the zoning laws usually have a bulldozer right behind their shoulder waiting to be sent.

              Well you didn’t even read the second half of my comment where I also called for taxing land.

              PS Trickle down housing doesn’t work. The end.

              Ah, yes, the old trick of calling everything you don’t like “trickle down”. Should the solution to the toilet paper shortages of 2020 have been to lock down new supply and wage a moral crusade against toilet paper scalpers? Or just actually get supply back to normal to avoid the whole situation in the first place?

              • @PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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                210 months ago

                the vast majority of new housing has been market rate

                Hmmm, market rate is determined by price fixing so the people living there have to make more so they can live there and then the rent is price fixed up, and so on, and so on, and so on…

                Raising taxes doesn’t help anyone in the short run since by the time it gets to being put towards something, it would probably be tax breaks for the tech companies. You’re right, I skimmed your comment because I knew what your goal was and you’d say anything to try and reach that goal; Build so there is money for investors, open the zoning laws all across the board so you can bulldoze and build more luxury apartments that families don’t want and the middle class and lower can’t afford. Trickle down housing takes 30 years to see results, all of your points are meaningless to me because you’re not operating in good faith.

                • @Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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                  510 months ago

                  Hmmm, market rate is determined by price fixing so the people living there have to make more so they can live there and then the rent is price fixed up, and so on, and so on, and so on…

                  Look at the chart I showed in my last comment again. Clearly landlords in Minneapolis aren’t raising rents in perpetuity. Gee, could that be because they abolished single-family zoning in 2018, and they’re already seeing a stabilized rental market despite being a large, desirable, high-QoL city? So much for your assertion that it “takes 30 years to see results”.

                  Raising taxes

                  My goal isn’t raising taxes. My goal is to replace bad taxes like sales, income, and property taxes with good taxes like land value taxes, carbon taxes (and other taxes on negative externalities), and severance taxes.

                  all of your points are meaningless to me because you’re not operating in good faith.

                  My guy, who do you think I am? Do you think all YIMBYs are actually just a secret cabal of developers rubbing our greedy little YIMBY hands together to demolish your historic gas stations and parking lots?

                  I’m a fresh-out-of-grad-school engineer who rents an apartment in a major city. I’ve seen the power of YIMBYism first hand, as I was able to negotiate down the landlord on rent before signing the lease, because there was a credible threat of me leaving and finding somewhere else cheaper. The reason why? My city, Montreal, is the most affordable major city in North America, with some of the lowest barriers to density, and extensive neighborhoods of “missing middle” housing (e.g., townhouses, plexes, low- and mid-rise apartments). All despite being a very desirable, very high-QoL city. Turns out having options gives you actual negotiating power against your landlord.

                  If you have all the fear of homelessness and your landlord has no fear of vacancy, then your landlord has all the power over you. If you have plenty of options, and your landlord has a credible fear of vacancy, you will have actual negotiating power. NIMBY policies only serve to empower landlords and weaken tenants.

                  Unlike you, I want to actually grant tenants (myself included) more negotiating power against their landlords by granting them more choices in housing.

                  Further, do you legitimately believe the current crony capitalist system has produced enough housing in America and Canada? Or is it possible vested interests have captured local governments to artificially limit supply and thus limit competition, and that NIMBYs like you are the pawns to protect their speculative investments?

      • ares35
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        910 months ago

        mine just jacked the rent again, more than doubled now in three years. it had gone up a grand total of one time over the previous 20 years (a whole $20) before he bought the building (pretty cheap, too).

        i knew this shit was gonna happen, soon as i saw that notice of the building being sold three years ago to an llc with “investments” in the name. the previous owners were also tenants themselves.

          • @nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            Why would you not raise the rent on your tenants? These people didn’t get into being landlords because they care about the field or the people. Those some people might as well be almost all those people.

      • @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1010 months ago

        If rent was just paying for the costs of utilities, insurance, taxes, general upkeep costs, and the mortgage for my unit I’d have no problem with it. When corporations start sucking up money to line the pockets of investors it becomes a problem.

        • blazera
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          610 months ago

          do you not think a landlord is by default an investor?

          • @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            510 months ago

            I’m not playing word games today, sorry. In this context “investor” means someone who is investing in corporate ownership of housing.

            • blazera
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              410 months ago

              Its no word game, this is layman’s terms, rental properties are bought by investors. I just dont get why unincorporated investors also sucking up money get a pass.

              • @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                210 months ago

                Because it’s greatly dependent on context. Someone with an ADU in their own back yard charging below market rent to a tenant (real life situation one of my friends is in, as the renter) is wildly different from Bill at the investor’s meeting demanding they raise rent again because he wants to buy a fourth mansion. Investing any real energy in decrying the former while the latter still exists just seems like a stupid waste of time to me.

            • blazera
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              110 months ago

              Im the guy saying get rid of all landlords. Being investors is what makes them bad.

      • blazera
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        210 months ago

        would you like to get back all the money you spent on a rental property when you move out?

          • blazera
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            210 months ago

            It’s how mortgages work. You make a monthly payment to live somewhere, same as renting. In the rental scenario, it all stays with the landlord. In the mortgage scenario, you have paid off some portion of the price of the house. When you move out, you sell the house, and use that money to pay the rest of what you owe, and the difference is yours. It’s like selling your car when buying a new one, except housing in the US tends to go up in price even when used.

            • @blackn1ght@feddit.uk
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              410 months ago

              You don’t need to explain it to me, I’m paying a mortgage and have rented before. But a rental isn’t a mortgage. You don’t get your money back when you return any rental item, why would a property be any different?

              The landlord is offering a service: a property that you can move into almost right away, sometimes even furnished, with little risk and without having to manage the property. They’re the ones who have taken on the risk of taking on a mortgage or have spent a lot of money buying something outright.

              I’m not defending all landlords here, but the concept. I think rentals are an important part of the market and for social mobility.

              • blazera
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                210 months ago

                But a rental isn’t a mortgage. You don’t get your money back when you return any rental item, why would a property be any different?

                right, thats why Im confused why anyone would rather rent.

                also Im hearing an alien language. Im living in a rental property, I’ve never had one furnished, and I’ve been threatened with eviction for not managing the property myself. I aint seen my landlord in years.

                Also, please dont buy into the propaganda that wealthy people are taking on risk. Its never about risk, its about having enough money to own the things that people need. They’re not gonna stop needing it.

                • @blackn1ght@feddit.uk
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                  410 months ago

                  right, thats why Im confused why anyone would rather rent

                  Maybe because you’re young and you don’t want to commit to buying a house yet? Or you’ve just got a new job in a distance place but need somewhere quickly? You can’t exactly tell your new employer you can’t start until 6 to 9 months while you look for a house and go through all the legal process to buy one. Also some people just don’t want to have to maintain it themselves. Boiler breaks? Landlords problem. Need a new roof? Landlord takes the hit.

                  Furnished rentals are definitely a thing here. Unfortunately shitty landlords exist everywhere.

        • @GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          That doesn’t make any sense. Are you connecting mortgage payments to “getting money back” or something?

          In a non private ownership situation the government “owns” the housing and citizens contribute via taxes. (Scaled to their ability/income) No argument on the validity of that approach, just saying someone still “owns” everything, and the money spent isn’t just sitting around, waiting to come back

          • blazera
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            110 months ago

            who said non-private ownership? Landlords are not the only property owners, as much as they would like to be.

                • @GBU_28@lemm.ee
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                  310 months ago

                  You proposed getting money back. I discussed options of who you might hope to be getting money from, because it wasn’t clear from your comment

      • blazera
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        210 months ago

        With an absence of landlords, buying an apartment unit like a condo would be how that works.

        • RaivoKulli
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          310 months ago

          But what if I don’t have money for an apartment or don’t want to commit myself to one?

          • blazera
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            110 months ago

            Are you talking about the current situation or my hypothetical? Because money and commitment are a big part of renting an apartment.

            • RaivoKulli
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              310 months ago

              I’m just talking about in general, how there’s reasons to rent

  • @WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml
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    2810 months ago

    Sorry, I couldn’t hear your pleas from my speedboat. Oh, you were busy working because I set your schedule to work on Labor day? Obviously we’re of two different classes of people. /s

      • @Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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        2210 months ago

        Wow you’ve met every single landlord in the entire world? That’s quite a feat.

        Unless of course you’re full of shit. Which you are.

      • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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        1710 months ago

        I do almost all the work on my properties. And when I don’t, my handyman gets $50/hr minimum.

        • Hot Saucerman
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          10 months ago

          Great thing your personal anecdote is so representative of the norm. /s

          I’m sure it means a lot to the people who can’t get their stairs/water/roof/etc fixed for months at a time because their landlord is a pile of shit.

          You know, I know there are racist white people, but I don’t strut around minorities pointing out how “I’m one of the good ones” telling of all my good anti-racist deeds because that’s fucking classless and defensive.

          • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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            910 months ago

            I mean sure, it would be weird if you went around and told people you are very not racist without solicitation. But it would also be weird if you were like “hand me the rope, I’ll do it myself” if the topic of conversation was explicitly “all white people are racist and should be murdered.”

            That fact that you are unable or unwilling to synthesize this distinction independently speaks volumes.

            • Hot Saucerman
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              10 months ago

              “all white people are racist and should be murdered.”

              That’s funny because I haven’t seen one instance in here of “All landlords are selfish and should be murdered.” You conflating those two speaks volumes.

              Also, like, how many people do you actually run into that say that kind of stuff about white people? Because I have literally never met one. Interesting that’s the first example you think of, hmmm?

        • @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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          610 months ago

          Yeah, we know, you are that unicorn that rents out your properties for the cost of utilities and don’t profit massively from it. Even if you are not lying on the internet (I know, preposterous), you are that unique one. If everyone was like that the problem wouldn’t even exist.

        • @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          510 months ago

          In the US just a little over 1/3rd of rental housing is owned by individuals. It’s much more common for renters to be dealing with a corporation that you have no real way of bargaining with as an individual. And they definitely don’t pay their handymen $50/hour.

    • @kibiz0r@midwest.social
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      2510 months ago

      Labor that they (under-)pay someone else to do, using the money that we (over-)paid them for the privilege of paying the mortgage (plus profit) while receiving no ownership in return.

      They don’t reside there, they don’t do any work there, and they didn’t even put up the money — the bank did.

      To quote Office Space: What would you say you do here?

      • Hot Saucerman
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        1810 months ago

        In other words, there’s a good fucking reason they call it “passive income.”

      • @dan1101@lemm.ee
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        710 months ago

        If you don’t pay your mortgage then you’re paying someone else’s mortgage, and taxes, and insurance in exchange for a place to live. That’s how it works. Don’t blame the player blame the game. I’m not a landlord but how you gonna have rental properties without landlords?

    • @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      510 months ago

      Only need to do that if there’s somewhere else to go. Because of extremely broken zoning, people will need to pay out the nose for tiny falling apart places.

    • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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      1810 months ago

      This is so true. And of course it gets upvoted because of the hive mind on Lemmy that thinks anyone who owns a small business is somehow bad.

      • @Destraight@lemm.ee
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        210 months ago

        No, not a small business. Do not try to twist that we are talking about landlords here not small businesses. There is a difference

        • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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          110 months ago

          Being a landlord = running a business. Being a small landlord= running a small business.

          Yes this is exactly what’s being discussed.

  • ShooBoo
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    2510 months ago

    Be thankful on this great socialist American holiday for the people.

  • JJROKCZ
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    1810 months ago

    Is there a version of this with proper English? It doesn’t help the plight of the labourer to speak so poorly

    • DessertStorms
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      2510 months ago

      What doesn’t help the plight of the labourer is being an elitist pedant.
      The message is perfectly clear.

      • JJROKCZ
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        210 months ago

        There’s a double negative, it isn’t perfectly clear. Why write incorrectly when you can just as easily so don’t light a grill.

        Being correct isn’t elitist

    • CazRaX
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      1110 months ago

      Language elitists about me more than most, especially English ones considering the massive mutt that the English language is. There is no proper English just what some think is proper because they have nothing else.

    • Rhaedas
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      1010 months ago

      There is no “proper” English, there are only various versions of the original. If you really want to nitpick, American English stayed “truer” to the original English because of various reasons while the British version diverged more over the 18th-19th centuries.

      Or in a shorter form, adding a ‘u’ to make some words sound more…French…is just silly.

    • digdug
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      510 months ago

      I had to read it a half dozen times to figure out what it meant. My favorite thought before I realized the use of the double negative was superfluous:

      “What’s a no grill?”

      • Hot Saucerman
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        10 months ago

        I guess the Rolling Stones should have their top hits rescinded for double negatives then? It can’t be a top hit, it has bad grammar!

        Should we rewrite “I can’t get no satisfaction” as “I cannot get satisfaction” to remove the double negative and the contraction?

        What even is this nonsense. You must be fun at parties.

    • quortez
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      510 months ago

      Congratulations, you’ve sufficiently annoyed me enough to log in to my local instances to type this out.

      There is no ”one” way to speak and write English — we don’t have an “”“official”“” institute of our language like Spanish or French does (and even if we did, they would not have a monopoly on English). We don’t speak in Received Pronunciation or keep the superfluous ‘u’ next to every ‘o.’
      Like every language, English has multiple dialects with their own vocabulary, and even some with their own specific grammar. The sentence in the OP was likely written in one of them - African-American Vernacular English. This dialect codifies double negatives, the habitual be, and words like ‘finna.’ Many of its aspects are already integrated into ‘standard’ American English.

      This is part of the process of language in general. Many of the rules in ‘proper form’ come from shorthand, slang, and and crude versions of other languages and forms. Being aware of the rules shifting and changing as people shift and change how they speak will probably get you further than turning your nose up at rules you don’t recognize.

      • JJROKCZ
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        210 months ago

        Double negatives are wrong in all dialects, they could and should have said don’t light A grill. This isn’t difficult.

      • @GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        110 months ago

        Oh no you logged in, it’s getting real now. 🙄

        There’s certainly no “one right way”, but there also a basis of effective communication. This is context specific.

        In this case, the meme obviously reached the target audience and the commenter saying it was unintelligible is wrong.

    • pjhenry1216
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      410 months ago

      It’s text on a background. If you can’t manage that on your own and share it instead, maybe try not criticizing others prior to asking for favors or favours since you seem to lean that way on your spelling. The post likely helps more than your whining at the very least. Plus your comments are filled with poor grammar. Not sure why you’re feeling secure in your throwing stones while living in that glass house.

      • Hot Saucerman
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        Beyond this, language isn’t moved by what’s in a dictionary. Language changes and evolves on its own into “slang,” slang being memed by people until it becomes a well known and popular term.

        I consider myself to write fairly well, but I also know the absolute strength of language that is imperfect in spreading a message. Some of the memes that gain the most traction are the ones that sound the most “street” as opposed to “academia.”

        Ignoring this and acting above it is just gatekeeping and elitism.

  • @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    1610 months ago

    The utility land owners provide is absorbing the risk of property value fluctuations and facilitate quicker transfer than buying and selling. But they charge exorbitantly for it.

        • @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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          310 months ago

          In the democracy the government can be influenced, working for people, and providing utilities and not trying to profit on every interaction.
          US democracy is very much broken so you can’t see how it would work, but that’s the idea.

          • RaivoKulli
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            I wasn’t even thinking of the US. Why is that the default for so many people?

            There’s load of different systems and governments. I’m just saying making the government the landlord wouldn’t necessarily be any better.

            • @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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              US is default on the internet, that’s just how it is. I’m not from US either but still living in this paradigm.

              I’m just saying making the government the landlord wouldn’t necessarily be any better

              Yeah, obviously it wouldn’t necessarily be any better but it’s hard to be worse

              • RaivoKulli
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                110 months ago

                There’s loads of very dysfunctional and corrupt governments. I can see how a very corrupt and faraway government entity being your landlord might be worse than renting from someone who lives in the building or something.

                • @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  110 months ago

                  Yeah, and dying in prison because you disrespected the glorious leader is worse than living under the bridge because you can’t afford a rent working three jobs.
                  But if we were to think of a system that will be an improvement, switching from barely regulated ancap dream to something managed not by profit but by desire to give people necessities is better for society. And it will have to involve a government.

    • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      That pretty low utility when property value has gone vastly up for decades. Id also question what “quick transfer” is, and whether it provides any use at all. Houses buy/sell in days now, as all the transactions have been streamlined between even novice sellers/buyers.

      Changing exorbitant profit to poorer people on top of raking in exorbitant profit for taking near zero risk isn’t a laudable role in society.

      • @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        410 months ago

        Yeah, it’s not much utility, but they can charge huge amounts for it because of how much demand there is for little supply. And the supply is kept low by horrible zoning and stigma against poor people and high density housing.

      • Hot Saucerman
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        10 months ago

        As climate change spins out of control, all land that is still functionally livable will skyrocket in value.

        Which is also why, shocker, the mega rich are buying up massive amounts of land in areas least likely to experience the worst of climate change, like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which has seen lots of influx of the rich buying property for “future-proofing” their life-plans.