I fully get the issues with landlords in terms of coasting off of other people's labor and in general being parasitic. My question is, the resistance I get when I say that someone shouldn't profit off of another person's need for housing is that they bring up grocery stores/ restaurants profiting off of a person's need for food. And I don't really know how to address or answer that. Just wondering if someone can close the loop for me!
Since it doesn't seem to have been said yet, I would also point out that landlords have a vested interest in maintaining a sub-adequate supply of housing on the market so as to increase rental values (and to spend as little as possible maintaining that housing). This isn't a marxian theory, but it fits into the liberal worldview and gives them a theory as to why development is not an actual strategy out of a housing crisis caused by private ownership.