I read the whole thing but my post wasn't a response to the essay but a response to Daave calling me the character from the essay along with a series of attacks from him lately. If I didn't understand something from the essay, which highly possible, proper etiquette would be to point that out and correct it. Not everyone understand everything that you understand.
4/23/2020 11:06:22 PM
4/23/2020 11:08:41 PM
I think you are missing the context of "landlord" because I think that is against people who exploit housing and not simply anyone who owns one house and lets someone else use it. but If you aren't wrong about the context of "evil landlord", what should I be doing? Would a housing swap be just as bad? can a leftist run a bed and breakfast? I'm not pretending to have clean hands but I see no other way forward. I always ask myself how the world would be different if I didn't do the action. They would be paying a lot more to someone i consider a "real landlord". What about short term renters like my tenant in general. What should they do? What would I do if my landlord wasn't doing something similar? I can't afford the average rent within 45 minutes of my job but my landlord doesn't exploit me as much as others. I'm not excusing the system, I'm just saying it is what it is and what else could i do?What about working class people like me who can't afford to buy a home without hustling in a capitalist system? What do you think we should do as leftists? Would I be better if I quit teaching and worked as a petroleum engineer and thus could afford a home where I work? and then what happens to the world when there are no leftists left teaching? I get it "live it, don't say it" but moaists who "live it" generally get assassinated by this system. Literally and figuratively.[Edited on April 23, 2020 at 11:42 PM. Reason : is the path to home ownership off-limits for working class leftists]
4/23/2020 11:34:03 PM
perhaps you have uncovered the hypocrisy of far left dogma. it's hard to live it, but also be able to survive the system enough to influence the policy. that's why heads of leftists movements tend to be part of the top 1% as much as other movements.
4/24/2020 3:09:10 PM
While I would like to own the house I live in...it's a massive money pit. Renting is much more comfortable.
4/24/2020 3:41:47 PM
^^It's not hypocritical for a leftist to exist under capitalism. But there's a fundamental difference between being a consumer and an exploiter/rentier.^I actually don't think renting one home is a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, it's just a funny contradiction for a preachy "socialist" on top of a pile of other contradictions. Mr. G![Edited on April 24, 2020 at 4:13 PM. Reason : .]
4/24/2020 4:08:43 PM
What pile of other contradictions? Preachy? I'm not the one trying to measure left testicular circumference. And are you saying Bernie Sanders, a millionaire, owning 2 homes and letting one sit vacant is NOT as hypocritical as my situation? You are dodging the questions I asked. You're cherrypicking things I do labeling them as unethical without actually describe any ethical reasoning. You may have just implied renting my personal property is unethical. Either that, or your're conflating personal property with private property. No one knows![Edited on April 24, 2020 at 5:12 PM. Reason : i believe everyone should be able to own a home yet me owning one home makes me a hypocrit?][Edited on April 24, 2020 at 5:13 PM. Reason : why am i, a stranger on a message board, held to a higher standard than the candidate you work for]
4/24/2020 5:07:27 PM
4/24/2020 5:17:16 PM
The mortgage won't be paid for decades. My tenant loves the location does not plan on being around much longer than a few years. Same boat I'm in. I will find someone else in a similar situation or go back to renting it on airbnb until I need to move in. I plan on eventually living in the one home I own.
4/24/2020 5:32:47 PM
4/24/2020 5:39:47 PM
Private property involves use for profit. Revenue is not the same as profit. I'm not using my house now because the commute would be over 2 hours. The link you provided has homes intended for personal use as an example of personal property. Again, what should I do? what is your answer to any of the questions brought forward? Maybe they haven't thought any of this through.[Edited on April 24, 2020 at 6:10 PM. Reason : if you are so sound,why can't you explain your ideology in the context of basic questions about life]
4/24/2020 5:54:21 PM
4/24/2020 6:27:18 PM
You just explained what is happening but did not explain how it is "exploitation". A landlord is generally used to refer to a person who buys multiple homes and rents them out for profit. I do not own multiple homes nor do I rent them for profit. I am a teacher by profession.
4/24/2020 6:54:38 PM
4/24/2020 6:59:31 PM
you should end on that high note. only pain from this point on.
4/24/2020 7:06:05 PM
Color of money discussions are annoying at work but at least they have meaning, imagine making a color of money argument about your personal life.
4/24/2020 7:14:56 PM
Ending without suggesting an alternative way forward or answering any big picture questions renders the entire thing useless. Its easy to criticize any participation in a capitalist economy from the left but giving an alternative act actually requires thought. I see why continuing to use a device acquired through the exploitation of labor involves pain. We live in a system where the working class makes barely enough to get by yet daave thinks a working class person who wants to seek temporary work somewhere else should have to buy another house and leave their old house vacant which is only possible for people who have inherited wealth (which is somehow considered ethical) or rent from landlords forever.and if they aren't a millioniare and can't find work near their personal home? Well I guess fuck them?[Edited on April 24, 2020 at 7:26 PM. Reason : yikes][Edited on April 24, 2020 at 7:28 PM. Reason : you should look up what they did to fred hampton]
4/24/2020 7:25:11 PM
I don't think anyone is mad at you for rooking a rich person to offset your costs (if that is indeed what you're doing). I'm not knocking the hustle. But just be honest about what you're doing or the practice you're engaging in.You are using someone else's labor to offset a cost for an asset(s) and/or using their labor to offset the risks of a liability you could otherwise not afford from the sweat of your own labor alone. That's a capitalism. You're doing a capitalism. At a very small scale, yes. But don't fool yourself into thinking that you are not.[Edited on April 24, 2020 at 7:34 PM. Reason : ]
4/24/2020 7:31:02 PM
How is it "rooking" when they were about to pay 40% more for any similar home? How do you determine a fair price? Wouldn't charging market value be capitalism? I'd agree having a stock based retirement fund is definitely capitalism and I do that so I'm not trying to say my hands are completely clean in life. Capitalism on a small scale does not make me a hypocrite nor does it make Bernie one. Yes I definitely have the income to afford the home I own and the furniture on nothing but my salary. Thats how mortgage qualification works. Would your ideal socialist transition not involve capitalism on a small scale? What does your ideal housing situation look like? Imagine if you didn't own a vacation home and went on a vacation? Where would you stay? Would temporary cashless housing swaps be permitted? Shared economy?Seeking survival by participating within a system I find unethical is not hypocrisy, its alienation. Any leftist should understand alienation and how it works. If you are able to buy a home everytime you move or find temporary work, its privilege that was earned within a capitalist system. Having a guaranteed pension or inheritance to rely on for survival after you can't work is also privilege. Education, healthcare, and nearly every industrial good you have ever purchased was offset by an unearned advantage or value from someone else's labor. Telling me that is not telling me...anything.Theres an easy answer to the question of why you guys aren't suggesting ethical alternatives. They generally don't exist in this country. You either participate or you die.[Edited on April 24, 2020 at 8:24 PM. Reason : p]
4/24/2020 8:23:26 PM
I'm trying to give you an elegant out on this but you keep digging your heels
4/24/2020 9:03:43 PM
Using the Marxist concept of alienation (incorrectly) to justify being a landlord...honestly I don't even know what to say.
4/24/2020 9:23:19 PM
4/24/2020 9:28:50 PM
4/25/2020 12:55:17 AM
I’m not sure what the end goal is here. Everyone can not own the place they live nor do they want to. I’m comfortable paying rent to avoid the risk of property ownership the same way I buy fruit at the store instead of growing it. I interact with co-ops ranging from rich ones on Park Ave to poor ones in Yonkers and the ownership pains are massive. Even the poorest have to hire management companies bc if they don’t their buildings will inevitability get fined by the city and rot from the inside out. This surplus talk is fun and all but property ownership requires work.
4/25/2020 1:53:38 AM
4/25/2020 3:00:54 AM
4/25/2020 3:02:03 AM
I’m not a macro economic libertarian like yourself, but i figured housing is less than amount of people, which is why prices go higher and we have so many homeless
4/25/2020 3:15:04 AM
in a hyper capitalist society like the US, you'll often have both (^^) a surplus in housing, as well as rampant homelessness like (^) mentioned. This would seem like a contradiction, until you realize that extreme wealth inequality simply removes the homeless out of the market completely, and landlords preserve their investment by marketing to a narrower pool of affluent renters.Libertarian thinking ("SuPplY aNd DemAnD, BaSIc EconOmIcS 101" types) would suggest that the demand represented by the existence of homelessness would put pressure on landlords to lower rent to fill their vacancies. However, this is not the case, as landlords are driven by a profit motive and commercial and extremely wealthy landlords have the capital reserves to hold on to vacancies and wait for more affluent renters to enter the market, thus preventing them from ever taking a loss on their investment. The homeless are effectively a non-factor on rental asking prices, because the stratification of wealth leaves the market with the super wealthy owners renting to affluent workers. The poor are just screwed and left unaccounted for.But as the pool of affluent renters becomes more and more strained, as may happen now with 26 million newly unemployed Americans, they can no longer afford their high rents and end up breaking leases and facing evictions. An event at this scale and at this pace is unprecedented, and without massive government intervention, we will see a wave of evictions in 2 to 3 months as even middle to high earning renters may not be able to pay back rent for the time that they were legally prohibited from leaving their homes to earn a paycheck.1 out of 3 renters didn't pay rent this month. Think about that. That's a powder keg ready to explode. This is the real reason why states like Georgia are jumping the gun on re-opening the economy. The land-owning class needs their renters to pay their rents so that the landlords can retain their investments and keep being landlords.
4/25/2020 4:12:39 AM
4/25/2020 4:22:30 AM
I live in a 120 year old house that is on an entire block of similar spec homes. They were certainly built with profit in mind.Oh and I agree, rental properties are going to take a huge hit but so will co-ops, condos and single family homes. [Edited on April 25, 2020 at 11:14 AM. Reason : Derp]
4/25/2020 11:11:30 AM
^ section 8 is a thing. It helps to understand a system when you're criticising it. But public housing has almost never been free. When the Soviet Union charged rent. Pay it or lose your home. So I don't get the accusation being made that rent is unsocialist.[Edited on April 25, 2020 at 1:13 PM. Reason : .m.]
4/25/2020 1:11:27 PM
4/25/2020 1:18:29 PM
4/25/2020 2:05:28 PM
4/25/2020 2:10:45 PM
4/25/2020 4:36:43 PM
I won't take credit for making up the concept of low prices on consumer products being subsidized by the exploitation of workers.
4/26/2020 4:03:47 AM
^ there are words, words have meanings, and their meanings matter.
4/27/2020 11:24:43 AM
yo what thread is this again??anyways...looks like one of the founders/admins of the ReopenNC Facebook group tested positive for covidhttps://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article242317346.html[Edited on April 27, 2020 at 12:50 PM. Reason : .]
4/27/2020 12:49:31 PM
4/27/2020 12:54:18 PM
Fuck. Our neighbors probably know this person personally.
4/27/2020 1:14:06 PM
^^^V[Edited on April 27, 2020 at 1:22 PM. Reason : responding to gapetto. I was on topic but then got personally attacked out the blue and responded][Edited on April 27, 2020 at 1:22 PM. Reason : good idea]
4/27/2020 1:20:36 PM
may I suggest at this point y'all move the capitalism is evil discussion to a more appropriate thread[Edited on April 27, 2020 at 1:22 PM. Reason : take a hint]
4/27/2020 1:21:51 PM
4/28/2020 8:39:34 AM
Protest marches are banned under this order. People who want to say their piece about their rent, their unemployment, their being exploited. They’re banned from doing it by the police, and we know the police dont keep us safe. They protect the big fat cats.If you want the people to rise up, you need to push back against this Police State and REOPEN NC.
4/28/2020 10:10:56 AM
Marches aren't banned so long as they practice correct social distancing protocols
4/28/2020 11:06:36 AM
You have the same chance of winning a minor prize ($20-$150) in the NC lottery than you do of receiving the unemployment the state owes you:https://www.wraltechwire.com/2020/04/28/study-north-carolina-ranks-dead-last-in-covid-19-pandemic-support/
4/28/2020 11:21:57 AM
4/28/2020 11:33:13 AM
She got sick in February, but is now an asymptomatic patient? And her quarantine is just now ending in April? I think she’s full of shit.
4/28/2020 12:19:40 PM
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1255169015477006337?s=21I mean, good I guess. But we can not send any security, police, first responders, etc and put them in danger?They can feel self-important and then these chucklefucks can just infect each other.
4/28/2020 12:27:58 PM
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1255380013488189440?s=21Lol
4/29/2020 3:20:17 PM