Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ikeyany 3059 days ago
The industry is based on making money off people who need a home...is there really any room for ethics?
1 comments

And the grocery industry is based on making money off people who need to eat. There does seem to be room for ethics there, for some stores or chains cut more corners than others.
Grocery stores act as a middleman; they aren't the sole provider of food. I don't think that analogy is sufficient.
There's no property management monopoly.... Not by a long way.

Fundamentally the problem is the company is hired to provide a service for the landlord but that service is paid for by the tenant. Hence usual market incentives for good behavior don't exist.

Lack of incentives for good behavior is the natural outcome of a necessity like housing being privately owned--with no realistic alternatives. Liken this to water; we are free to buy our own expensive water if we want, but wouldn't you be outraged if there were no baseline of free/low cost tap water?