• Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
    hexbear
    68
    9 months ago

    Is this the dream of every Westerner to own property that they can rent out? I hear a lot of this from Americans and Canadians about how they want to get into real estate.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      54
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      It's not just a westerner thing, look at China before Mao's reforms. Look at parts of South Africa now. Feudal economic conditions lead to this kind of rent seeking behaviour being taken to the extreme. It's why Adam Smith hated landlords so much, the whole point of capitalism, to those that actually belive in it, is that's it's a progression from feudalism. So this kind of extreme rent seeking behaviour should not be a part of capitalism, according to what I refer to as utopian and idealistic capitalists. However, in actually existing capitalism, neo feudal economic conditions are recreated over time as the rate of profit falls. Which leads to this kind of behaviour and landlord worship.

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
        hexbear
        20
        9 months ago

        The Chinese landlords pre Mao were more feudal lords than people renting out residential properties

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
          hexbear
          29
          9 months ago

          And the people renting out residential properties are becoming more and more feudal in their tactics as time passes. Like in this post about the guy subdividing his apartment in Poland, to take advantage of a refugee crisis with the war next door.

          • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
            hexbear
            22
            9 months ago

            no I mean Mao's landlords were actual literal feudal lords with peasants, manors, castles and everything

              • GarbageShoot [he/him]
                hexbear
                15
                9 months ago

                I just realized the depth of perversion it is to have women doing ballet to celebrate "China before communism" when those women would have probably had bound feet if not for communism and therefore been unable to perform ballet (or could only do so at extreme difficulty).

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]
          hexbear
          15
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          So were the people Smith calls "landlords," (who were generally renting land for farming, not shelter, as they also did in China). His point stands, it's just a different type of rent extraction.

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]
          hexbear
          18
          9 months ago

          Feudal economic conditions lead to this kind of rent seeking behaviour being taken to the extreme

          For reference, it was common in pre-Mao China for landlords to take 90% of the harvest from a peasant, who did the labor just to be able to get the remaining 10% because they owned no land on which to farm their own crops.

          • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
            hexbear
            4
            9 months ago

            That's interesting and outrageous but it doesn't answer my question at all.

            • GarbageShoot [he/him]
              hexbear
              3
              9 months ago

              The answer is that feudal conditions aren't needed but that's not what the other person said.

      • SaniFlush [any, any]
        hexbear
        8
        9 months ago

        See you’re expecting western capitalists to actually read and comprehend Adam Smith instead of simply invoking his name like a saint.

    • barrbaric [he/him]
      hexbear
      45
      9 months ago

      Yes. I have a cousin who bought a place and is renting it out rather than living there because she can't actually afford the mortgage on her own salary. She's living with my aunt for free.

      It's bad, folks. took-restraint

      • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
        hexbear
        26
        9 months ago

        Jesus. You guys should live down here where the government can't reach us and we build our own houses with the community. Only downsides are very awful internet access and spotty electricity. That, and you need to grow and harvest your own food.

      • kristina [she/her]
        hexbear
        15
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        it pretty much is the only option to retire. yea

        at least you can reduce the moral dilemma of it by doing vacation rentals or something? in a spot where its obvious there needs to be vacation housing

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexbear
      22
      9 months ago

      Is this the dream of every Westerner to own property that they can rent out?

      That was 90% of the pull of Metaverse(tm) and NFT grifts, yeah.

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]
      hexbear
      18
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      The average person’s dream is to be able to exploit their neighbors. They won’t say it of course. But they’ll talk about wanting to own property to rent. When my family came here and was poor as hell, my dad considered buying two houses to rent the other.

      Luckily my mom talked him out of it, but that’s because he was planning on doing all the maintenance work and answering calls lol. Wonder how it would’ve played out if they learned that you can be a lazy bum and outsource everything at your leisure and most people won’t be able to complain because housing would be scarce 10 years later.

    • GaveUp [she/her]
      hexbear
      17
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      Yep, I know a 22 year old who's current financial goals in life is looking for rental properties to buy within the next year in his cheap hometown so his parents can manage it

        • GaveUp [she/her]
          hexbear
          17
          9 months ago

          Depressing news there are zoomers that are becoming landlords already

          • RNAi [he/him]
            hexbear
            5
            9 months ago

            We failed to those children, and they are acting accordingly

      • RyanGosling [none/use name]
        hexbear
        7
        9 months ago

        My cousin who is 18 plans on getting a house with friends so she can get her friends to pay the mortgage via rent

        • GaveUp [she/her]
          hexbear
          8
          9 months ago

          Pay HER mortgage? That's incredibly deranged if so

          Me and 4 of my friends at the beginning of uni considered buying a townhouse and then selling it after we graduate lol

    • RNAi [he/him]
      hexbear
      12
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      That's capitalism confronted with finite resources, everyone just want to be a renter and reap what they don't sow