Comment on Rent is theft
Riverside@reddthat.com 2 days agoLet’s translate yours: “I cannot conceive of a social housing system similar to that of social healthcare, in which people are guaranteed housing at affordable prices by law”
Comment on Rent is theft
Riverside@reddthat.com 2 days agoLet’s translate yours: “I cannot conceive of a social housing system similar to that of social healthcare, in which people are guaranteed housing at affordable prices by law”
worhui@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Riverside@reddthat.com 2 days ago
The post: “rent is a tax TO RICH PEOPLE[…]”. The problem is obviously private landlordism, not social housing in the form of rent
worhui@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I thought that they were simply reclassifying anyone who owned property as rich.
I have seen that argument made in good faith.
balsoft@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Even if you misinterpret the argument that way, social housing could be provided for free at the point of use, with no rent to be paid. The main distinction is whether the housing is owned and controlled by private or public entities; the former will necessarily demand a profit to be made, the latter can operate “at a loss” by spending taxpayer funds as a social service.
worhui@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That’s not a misinterpretation. This wasn’t a call where rent limits are set by a locations minimum wage.
This was the abolition of rent.
Which does go along with the elimination of ownership. If all housing was state owned that would eliminate the potential for price gouging and allow for the distribution of housing based on pure need. An empty space + a person = housing
Not many people are calling for the end of homeownership.
balsoft@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
It depends on what is meant by “ownership”.
Personally I’m in favor of some modified version of the chinese system where almost everyone “owns” a home, but their children can’t inherit it. I think technically the state owns all the housing, and provides people with a cheap/free lifetime lease of some kind. There should also be a limit on how many properties a single person can own, and renting those places out should be banned.
And then as a compliment there should also be some excess state-owned social housing. There are edge-cases where for one reason or another you can’t/don’t want to own.
So yeah in general I think we need to abolish the concept of homeownership as it exists in the west.