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?

        • mke_geek@lemm.ee
          510·
          2 years ago

          Not everything people pay for produces a tangible object. For example, people pay to hear someone play a song. People pay to hop in an Uber to get from point A to point B – they don’t own the car they ride in afterwards.

          People pay for services and there’s nothing wrong with that.

            • RandomCucumber@lemm.eeEnglish
              11·
              2 years ago

              I guess it really depends on whether or not the landlord is a slumlord or not.

              Home ownership is not easy. Homes and properties require constant care and maintenance, for those who care about them. Having two properties can easily eat up 2-3 days a week, year round.

              Absolute bare minimum I put at least $10,000 into my house every year, and that’s if I do all the work myself and nothing major breaks.

              Paint, decking, siding, roof, furnace, plumbing, electrical, lighting, exhaust fans, yardwork, insulation, windows, doors, cabinetry, appliances, replacing sewer lines, cleaning french drains, gutters, etc etc. They may not all need work in the same year, but they do all need work and some of those jobs are a major time and money commitment.

              To say property ownership is a passive income is ignorant at best, but more likely disingenuous. If it’s truly passive, it’s only passive for a short period of time before the costs catch up to you and your “investment” is ruined.

            • mke_geek@lemm.ee
              312·
              2 years ago

              Providing rental housing is a service. It’s a job, like being a waiter or a flight attendant.

                • mke_geek@lemm.ee
                  38·
                  2 years ago

                  You are mistaken regarding the activities that landlords do. And the lower the income of the tenant, the more work the landlord has to do.

                  Paperwork and dealing with government bureaucracy is part of the job.

                  Landlord activities directly affect the “client” which is the same in any service industry.

                  Being self employed still means having a job. Some people only know what it’s like to be an employee. They don’t know the ins and outs of running your own business. Perhaps that’s why you don’t understand the job of being a rental property owner.

        • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
          210·
          2 years ago

          Free money is not a thing… Except for people who do nothing that anybody wants to trade for money, and then it’s their entitlement and fuck everyone else?

          And yes everyone deserves housing, food, healthcare, and a shot at happiness. But taking something for nothing on the backs of people with more to offer than you and then being an ungrateful dick about it saying you just deserve it is pretty off-putting. Let’s all share and make sure everybody gets a shake, but JFC be gracious and say thank you if you are on the take of the system. Putting money in real estate by a college campus is not the same as buying up every new house on the market in an area, I just want a place to put my money that isn’t going to go tits up before I can put my kids through college.

          Some people don’t have shit to offer society, and some of those people ARE rich. Some of them are not rich, and gotta have a big fucking pair of nuts to throw around words like “leech”.

            • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
              53·
              2 years ago

              So where does the money go then?

              It’s leeching to landlord. It’s leeching to put it in the market to get passive income. There’s some magical point where it’s too much money to keep in a bank account by either FDIC or people saying “bro there are homeless folks on the street!”

              If you have money in any quantity, it makes no sense not to put it to work. I can take it out and out it in a mattress in my house for safe keeping, but functionally that’s stupid. There are plenty of people who aren’t trying to screw anybody who have more money than makes ends meet AND are onboard with the same causes, but for some reason we gotta do a scarlett L if they put it in real estate?

              For the I have less than 1M but more than 100K crowd, I don’t know what the general population of this thread expects. This is the wealthiest most of us can ever hope to be. It’s not by any means fuck you money, but it sure gets fuck you treatment.

                • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
                  42·
                  2 years ago

                  I think we can absolutely agree to the fact that the system is broken.

                  I would love help to fix it, but I have to operate in it for the time being. I even want to play on the leftist team, but I find it pretty unsatisfying though to get spit on by the rest of the team you know?

                  This post really kinda summarizes it for me. Regular people trying to make it? Nah fuck em. You’re the same as big asshole real estate. Man that sucks to read and it makes me indignant. It’s a totally shit thing to hear when I’m ready to give something for nothing because people just deserve it, you know? I don’t even own a second property and it makes me salty.

                  All I want to do is save so I can help my kids through college and maybe buy a house where they can have a flat piece of ground for a swing set and to throw a ball around. If I can give extra I will, but dammit threads like this really want to paint people like me as assholes.

                  I do not prefer it.

                  • Scirocco@lemm.ee
                    2·
                    2 years ago

                    You have made a very good case here that resonates strongly with me

                    Where is rhe line between “us” and “them”?

                    Is it leftist vs liberal? Lib vs conservative?

                    No. It’s all of “us” vs the them that are in the 1%