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skyyler

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If you want to be able to rent property, you need a landlord.

Public housing is impossible

The government can be a landlord as well.

I guess the question is, would they be a better landlord than the median private landlord.

The evidence is that they would be much worse.

Not median. Whatever landlord you can find. If you want something specific from a landlord it may be something that only .01% does, but so long as you can find one. Even if most people don't need that one thing, if there is any one size doesn't fit all you are better off with competition.

Yea, NYCHA is an example of how that can fail horribly.

You’ve never understood the concept of property rights?

The only rights are what the government says you can do with their land that they've given you title to.

I understand the concept just fine.

I just find it interesting that people allow landlords to exist.

What do you find interesting about it? Renting out property in general? Or is it something specifically to do with housing?

If I have a house and want to rent out an unused bedroom, your preference would be that I shouldn't be allowed to do this?

We criticise rent-seeking behaviour in software, I find it interesting that it's different in "real life"

Rent-seeking behavior is not the same as renting out property, it's a specific term in economics

Adam Smith saw most landlording as rent-seeking. He saw landlords as cruel parasites.

So do I.

“As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed and demand a rent even for its natural produce.”

The solution to that is not to abolish landlords, it’s to tax land ownership.

That's not really here or there. Owning a house does not make it legal to, for example, use it as a brothel. We could just as well say that owning a house does not make it legal to rent out. You'd still have your right to the property.

You only really own what you're using. The rest is obligation and usury.

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