Reason I’m asking is because I have an aunt that owns like maybe 3 - 5 (not sure the exact amount) small townhouses around the city (well, when I say “city” think of like the areas around a city where theres no tall buildings, but only small 2-3 stories single family homes in the neighborhood) and have these houses up for rent, and honestly, my aunt and her husband doesn’t seem like a terrible people. They still work a normal job, and have to pay taxes like everyone else have to. They still have their own debts to pay. I’m not sure exactly how, but my parents say they did a combination of saving up money and taking loans from banks to be able to buy these properties, fix them, then put them up for rent. They don’t overcharge, and usually charge slightly below the market to retain tenants, and fix things (or hire people to fix things) when their tenants request them.

I mean, they are just trying to survive in this capitalistic world. They wanna save up for retirement, and fund their kids to college, and leave something for their kids, so they have less of stress in life. I don’t see them as bad people. I mean, its not like they own multiple apartment buildings, or doing excessive wealth hoarding.

Do leftists mean people like my aunt too? Or are they an exception to the “landlords are bad” sentinment?

  • howrar
    1·
    3 days ago

    Yes, you’ve already said this but it doesn’t answer the question. Repeating yourself won’t change that. What I asked when I originally responded to you was why the simpler alternative of renting at cost isn’t acceptable. So far, you’ve told me

    A tenant never gains anything once the terms of the lease expire […] as long as the price of rent is a positive number.

    […] Paying a non-zero amount of rent is always parasitic.

    Which can mean any of the following:

    1. There are no costs associated with renting so at-cost is 0
    2. You are not aware of what there is to gain from renting over owning
    3. You do not need those benefits yourself and therefore no one else does either
    4. You disagree with the concept of money being an abstraction for physical goods and human labour (There’s something special about owning home equity that is different from having the money to buy that same equity and that can’t be translated to a monetary value?)

    I’ll rule out #1 because you also said

    Then landlords should send me an itemized invoice that details each of the expenses incurred while I’ve been a tenant, a breakdown detailing how any rent payments cover the cost of those expenses, and a payment plan that we can negotiate to ensure both parties are getting fair deals.

    Which means you do acknowledge the existence of a cost to rental units.

    So what is it that you don’t agree with? Is it one of the things I’ve listed, or did I miss something?