Mate, you’re talking an awful lot but still not prove how its theft for me to rent a property I own and I bought and I pay taxes for? I’m not forcing you to live in my fucking studio apartment, its a service. An accommodation. I’m not stopping you from buying your own.
Comment on Rent is theft
FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml 1 day agoWhen you rent it out, will the rent be less than or equal to the sum of the depreciation of the property and the maintenance?
If not, if you will be making a profit. You’ll pay taxes for the property that are intended to make up for the value the property is gaining^[If it doesn’t gain value then you can run the numbers again allowing yourself to pass down the taxes to the tenants.] That surplus amount corresponds to no actual value. The tenants would be paying for nothing, and you’d be getting money for doing nothing.
Whether that’s theft or not depends on your definition of theft. I personally subscribe to the idea that if someone get an euro that they didn’t work for, that’s an euro someone else worked for and didn’t get to keep. I don’t believe this situation to be different from if you were to buy a stake in your local grocery chain which is making money out of putting commodities on the market which have in them the objectified human labor of everyone in the supply chain, and paying those people less for their labor power than what it’s worth. The common term for that is “exploitation.”
I also don’t mean to make this a moral judgment. I don’t know if you’re gonna go to heaven or not, that’s really not the crux of the issue here. I’m trying to give you an analysis of the economic forces at play, and if you ask me, the solution to the problem isn’t for individuals to change how they behave on an individual level, it’s for the working class to seize political power and abolish private property.
MadBits@europe.pub 1 day ago
FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
I can’t answer that question unless you answer mine. The answer is contingent on the rate at which you rent it out.
FarmTaco@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Receiving payment for living space is the same as slave labor, that’s a pretty wild take.
FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
If the payment received exceeds the costs a profit is generated. That profit represents appropriation of surplus value. Surplus value corresponds to the uncompensated (or in this case, compensated but later misappropriated) expense of labor power.
What specific part of this argument do you think is objectionable?
Test_Tickles@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The part where you call any and all profit theft. Also the part where you are attacking individuals for trying to improve their lives while the entire mess is caused by corporations and billionaires.
FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Who is generating the surplus value, then?
I’m not attacking anyone, I’m explaining how the system works. I explained in another comment that I believe the solution to this problem is the abolition of private property, not stringing up anyone who has ever made any profit in a transaction.
low@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Uhh the renter can refuse the agreement and build a house if that’s what they wanna do… you don’t have to rent?
FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
You’re right. It’s also true that if I don’t wish to expend my labor power in exchange for compensation, I can also buy a factory where I buy materials and labor and sell them for more than they cost.
Can you think of any reason why, when done at scale, these sorts of activities create a class system where not everyone can simply buy a plot of land and build a house, or be an industrial entrepreneur? That there will actually have to be many times as many people who have to sell their labor and pay rent?