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Comment by ddevault | Hacker News Reader

Correct. Landlords are reprehensible, including small ones.

There is huge value in subdividing land and building, creating housing for people who cannot afford to buy and build. You're stuck in a suburbia mindset.

Not everyone can afford a SFH, there isn't enough land. Not everyone can afford to build. Not everyone wants to have massive switching costs when they need to move.

I think most people who are against the rentier economy would agree that there is great value in all of those things, but that they shouldn't be a for-profit enterprise. One way to obtain that value without landlords is for the state to buy land, subdivide it, and build dense housing units available to citizens who live in them at a reasonable, or even subsidized, cost.

My issue with this solution is we do not even allow private entities to build dense housing. So we are breaking a market and then saying the state is the solution. I interact with the government regularly and I do not have faith in their capabilities to get anything done.

There's a difference between building housing and being a landlord.

I disagree. Someone is funding the construction in the same way that someone is paying for the land and keeping it subdivided (rental units) and available.

Tenants are more than welcome to form LLCs and collectively purchase land and build or buy existing housing. This is called Tenant in Common. Maybe that is a business (non profit) idea for you, make TiC easier.

I rent an apartment, and am pretty happy with the arrangement. Obviously I wish I was paying less, but at the end of the day, I chose to live here, and enjoy the flexibility it allows me. (For a few thousand dollars and a moving truck, I can move across the country on a whim. I can go on vacation for months at a time by just locking my door and walking away. My landlord is responsible if any major repairs are necessary.)

My point here is that a blanket statement such as "landlords bad" doesn't match the experience of everyone out there.

>Only people who have good enough credit for a mortgage and can afford to buy deserve a place to live

Sounds worse when you put it that way though.

There are more than two options.

Yes, let's ban rentals altogether.

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