this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (11 children)

We'd have a lot of empty houses and maybe cheaper houses.

Look. Personally, I love renting. Its fleksible.i can move whenever i want to and not think about selling. Also i can live in places where houses are practically unsellable and not worry that I can't sell once I want to live somewhere else

Also, I don't have to worry about repairing and maintaining the house. If I window breaks, I call the landlord. If a pipe breaks a leak, I call the landlord. For me, renting is great!

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@cosmicrookie @stabby_cicada you could still have rental houses in a system with no landlords

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (9 children)

@cosmicrookie @stabby_cicada I mean for example with housing cooperatives

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

Just imagine paying the half of it, for supporting local workers for maintenance and fixups instead of a random nobleman's holidays in paradise...

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My brother in Christ you're the one paying for those repairs and more yourself, it's not like the landlord does it personally. Some might to save a buck, but you're still paying the bill.

Oh and all those repairs are tax deductible so they will pay less than you will on taxes usually.

Oh and if they would have to pay taxes, you're paying the taxes for them.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (18 children)

This is how everything you buy works. When you buy bread from the store you're paying more than it costs to make.

My point is, that I am willing to pay the landlord, to handle these responsibilities and risks

Edit: and inconvenience

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

wow look at mister lives in the good part of town over here where landlords pick up the phone

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I just add nuance to a point that all landlords should not exist.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

We can have low-commitment apartments without landlords. Landlords are an unnecessary medium between you and a roof over your head. That doesn't mean you have to be responsible for the roof over your head, just that the landlord is milking you for more than the roof is worth.

One way is we could just have a system where you sign up for the type of housing you want and the government gives it to you when one such becomes available. If you want to live in a detached home with 3 bedrooms where you're more responsible for fixing stuff, you sign up for that. Maybe families are given priority for those. If you want to live in an apartment where you have to sign a waiver to put a nail in the wall, then you sign up for that. The landlord is only here to siphon money out of your pocket and into his. If the rent instead went to a country-wide pool that paid for house maintenance and new construction, rent would be significantly cheaper for everyone except maybe rural farms but that's a weird case where exceptions can be made because farmers work the land they live on so it's different.

The point is: your landlord is useless. It might seem like a good deal if you can't think beyond the systems we live in, now, but it isn't.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'd be happy to rent if the value of houses didn't double every decade.

Here in Australia you really just work so you can pay your mortgage. The wealth you accrue through your life is mostly the value of your house rather than the money you save.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Have you seen what that looks like in the US? It ain’t pretty or comfortable.

That’s like buying something that’s “military grade” thinking it’s good. It’s not.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I grew up in a government subsidized co-op, and I loved it. It's still going, and some of the rents are as low as $8/mo.

Government/public housing can be good. You just need to protect it.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Buying and selling houses is a nightmare to make you feel like rentals are necessary.

When my parents wanted to move as young adults it was easy for them to sell their property and use that money to buy a new one in the place they were moving to. That's now way more difficult just for the benefit of landlords.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Saying that you add nuance with that comment, is like saying anti-vaxers add nuance with their views.

It is proven time and time again that when something is done against landlords the normal people benefit. See Vienna for example, or the early ccp or the whole movement of and views of Henry George.

You can also see full video about the topic in Britain here

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Sure. But no matter how many videos I watch or how many articles I read about how terrible landlords can be, it won't change the fact that I dont want to own a property and also that there are people who are unable to buy. There are also people who are not in that stage of life where they want to have ties to a house.

Its not black or white.

Hence nuanced

I might be in the wrong place, discussing and interesting topic though.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

You are having a false dichotomy here, it is not either no landlords or no rental properties.

That is the whole point, you can have all the benefits and more without landlords.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (10 children)

If a person disappears the things they own will still be here, shocking revelation.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (9 children)

point is that they add no value to anything.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

Found the landlord, guys

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

When workers die, you no longer have labor. When scientists die you no longer have their intelligence.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Those things will be inherited and there will instantly be new landlords. Unless we want the state seizing and redistributing assets on death... which i don't.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Thing is, someone owns those houses and it's certainly not poor people like me. Also we need more housing in most western countries and private entities are definitely not going to build it if they can't rent it out. We need to figure out a way to force public entities like the state to build more housing.

A communist (or similar) revolution might take care of it, but that's a lot more involved than "all landlords disappear".

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Mortgage payments are often cheaper than rent. The barrier for poorer people to owning is usually downpayment requirements and credit. There are many reasons for the "housing crisis;" most stemming from real-estate being treated as a speculative asset or "investment," which incentivizes all kinds of phenomenon harmful to society.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If all those people that have money to build houses were forced to give it away (taxes), we the people (the government) could just build the houses and not charge exorbitant rent.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The hard part is how to actually make the government do that. And ideally without turning your state into a stalinist or maoist dystopia.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

it's better to use the gender neutral term, more inclusive, please use landparasite

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

I'm no sexist. They can also evaporate.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

There's a lot of smug "well actually" commenters in this thread, who have completely missed that the meme is making a rhetorical point about the nature of rent-seeking rather than sincerely advocating for the sudden disappearance of all landlords.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I could go on vacation twice a year if I didn't pay rent.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

We'd have more houses, they gotta live somewhere too

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Let's some to simplify every person gets to buy only one home and this is only for them and their families to enjoy.

Now they still have more money than you. They just won't invest in a house but somewhere else instead. Now nobody can rent, great all the banks now get a ton of revenue for all that money they lend out because everybody needs to buy. (Making them insanely rich)...

Inequality is the problem, just peddling a simple solution like getting rid of one symptom is not gonna fix this. Also changing the system has historically done nothing in that way either.

Taxing the rich would. ;)

Landlords are easy to hate, but they are necessary. Having them paying high taxes and having strong protections for renters will keep them honest and contributing and the market balanced.

Let's start with some constructive work instead of hate flaming memes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I would argue that being able to rent a house is necessary. That doesn’t mean we have to rent them from private landlords.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (4 children)

All y'all need to read about Georgism.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think technically people that own their own homes are landlords too, but I get what you mean.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago

From Wikipedia

A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant.

So, I'd say you're technically wrong :D

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