Quick summary: I own my house. It's a 3 br, 2ba home, and I only use one bedroom and bathroom for myself. Recently a friend of mine proposed moving in. I've thought about it, and decided to offer them the other 2 rooms and bathroom to them for $500/month + half utilities.
I told another friend of mine (someone not directly involved) about this in passing, and they began to personally attack me for being a sham of a communist, and being a capitalist, and a landlord. They claim that what I'm asking for is steep. I understand essentially the place where their criticism is coming from, rent is a system of accumulation whereby I would be gaining wealth, and my friend would be receiving merely the permit to exist in my house. So on some level I understand and agree with the fact that this arrangement is essentially at odds with my beliefs.
Does this make me a sham? Brutal honesty please.
I'd just prefer to live alone in that instance.
They're worse off than me.
Fully agree, hence asking for brutal honesty. I appreciate you taking the time.
What is critical is that you don't charge your friend to live at your place purely because you own it. That, in my opinion, is where it becomes capitalist exploitation and wealth extraction.
Making them pay for any utility bills and other costs they cause is more than fair, but to ethically charge anything more than that would require some really good justification.
I know it kinda sucks, I would find it hard to effectively turn down free money too. But doing exactly that for the benefit of those less fortunate is exactly what separates us from them.