Hacker News Reader

Confused: are the houses empty? No? Then they've had no impact on a housing crisis.

This is a glib non-analysis that attempts to dismiss a legitimate and non-trivial problem.

It's as much about prices as it is about quantity. The houses and rental units are there, they're just really expensive as a % of income.

There's just a vocal contingent of left politics who believe that what the people secretly crave is socialism, that tenants don't want merely shelter at a fair price but the elimination of property as a concept altogether, and this contingent has plenty of overlap with press reporters.

It's clear that you've never talked to any leftist about this, because what you're likely to hear is an argument that everyone should have the right to own their own home (yes, as private property).

Are there are a lot of practical problems with a world that truly has no landlords? Of course. But it does you no good to make stuff up about a school of thought you clearly know nothing about and have never attempted to engage with.

You must be phoning this in from a different planet, or at least some other country. It is a plank of the DSA policy platform that only "social housing" be allowed to be built.

You’re really reaching here Jeff.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com