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Comment by austenallred | Hacker News Reader

>What a scumbag

I wouldn't say it's his fault. He's not doing it for charity, sure, but it's not his fault that the prices are insane. He's not forcing people to live there.

People double their money where I live renting places for $350/bed. People either can't afford a whole place to themselves or don't want to risk the hassle of renting an entire place and subleasing it, so they rent, realizing their combined rent is making a profit for the owner. It's just arbitrage.

> He leases the bungalow from a Chinese venture capitalist for about $6,800

That is just insane.

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No, but he's profiting off other people's misfortune.

I don't think that's fair. You're assuming that because the rent is $1,000/month he's a douchebag. The bay area has prices that are higher than Manhattan's. He's trying to provide cheap housing in an area where the prices are absolutely insane (try to find a room cheaper than that in Los Altos). He makes a profit from doing so - I don't think that makes him a terrible person.

Again, no one is forcing them to live there. They can come live where I do and get a three-bedroom house for $750/month, but they apparently want to live there. He gives them that chance.

What of that? Profiting from people's misfortune is not in and of itself wrong. (If it were, we would have to start by condemning every doctor in the world.) What's wrong is causing misfortune. If anyone is to be called scumbags, it should be the people who vote for laws restricting the construction of new housing. That's what creates these conditions.

I just moved to the bay area for work and I rented from Brandon for a week while I went apartment hunting.

I don't think he's a 'scumbag' or profiting off of others misfortune. I was able to rent a place to crash for ~$150 less per day than a hotel would have cost and I had access to a full kitchen, washer/dryer, fast internet etc, which I wouldn't have had with a hotel.

If somebody forces people of misfortune to pay more because they're stuck, just to make a buck, that's pretty inarguably unethical.

If somebody gives people of misfortune a significantly cheaper option, which has its fair tradeoffs in delivered product, while still being profitable, I don't see much of a problem.

It's a city not a prison.

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