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.

    • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I lived alone for a few months. I could easily afford rent even with one bedroom empty. I have power to allow or deny access to housing that he would be hard-pressed to find an alternative to.

      So on my end, there's no class divide, but on his end, he directly owes me money every month, and struggles to come up with it due to other expenses. Is a class divide objective, or experienced? concrete, or relational?

      • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The issue I'm referring to, in the case of the OP, is that their friend/room mate will be helping them pay the mortgage of the house. The mortgage will increase OP's capital and put him into the home owning class of the US, while the roommate will gain nothing tangible from the transaction in the long term.

        In essence the roommate will be transferring wealth to the OP, increasing their capital, without a return.

        This is the same issue with landlords as a whole as well, which is where the class divide is.

        OP will be moving upwards in societal mobility, his roommate will be moving laterally at best.

        In your case, neither of you are benefitting from this except in the short term. Your capital holdings will be the same at the end of it and you are transferring wealth to a landlord.

        • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
          ·
          3 years ago

          We both make between 10 and 20 an hour, depending on the job/gig/circumstances; we're pretty close in earnings/hours. But he has debts that threaten to control his life, while I will be putting a large down payment on a house by the time this lease is up. The 3k I hope to get from him will allow me to make that capital investment sooner. We're both transferring wealth to the landlord, but I will come out much further ahead. Is this not a degree of class distinction?

          • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Probably closer to a privilege rather than a class distinction at that point, though others might have different opinions.

            Ive always seen it as who is exploiting, if you have the means to exploit someone's wealth from them then you are generally of a different class. In this case your landlord is still the one doing that, you're just sharing that burden with someone else which is allowing you some additional mobility.

            It's not an egalitarian situation by any means, and is probably an example smaller divide within a class, but he's not actually paying your mortgage at this point.

            Obviously there's stuff like your familial backgrounds, the reasons behind his debts, and a ton of other potential things that could change this.

            But just purely on the face of you being better off while cohabitating I don't think that large of a divide is quite there.