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by Constellarise 2095 days ago
> if they want to prevent evictions they need to pay the landlords what they’re owed. Reparations.

Why should the government back up somebody's risky investment?

2 comments

If you prefer it this way, they should pay the renters who should pay the landlords. Happy?

My point is the government should not make it illegal to generate income and then turn around and say that renters need to pay rent, but neither should they say that landlords must be stuck holding the bag.

Do people understand that landlords aren’t this mysterious class of evil overlords? They’re just people. I’ve taken evil landlords to small claims court before, but that doesn’t mean I think I should be entitled to live in someone’s house for free.

I am absolutely flabbergasted by how “billionaire” and “landlord” are now bad words.

I think its for good reason that “billionaire” and “landlord” are now bad words. It doesn't take a that much reading to see why the mere concept of a billionaire is horrible, for everyone. It is especially bad in context of wealth inequality and how many billionaire simply dont give back to the collective in any way and only horde mass amounts of wealth for themselves. It also requires only looking at the homeless statistic and the housing market to figure out that being a landlord is also pretty immoral, at least if you think that shelter and housing is a human right.
Bilionaires get wealthy by producing value and capturing some of it. They wouldn't have gotten that money if someone didn't pay them for a product or service.

The only exceptions are those who made fortunes via government monopolies, which is yet another example of why the State needs to have its power checked. Unrestrained capitalism is not the problem, crony capitalism is, and crony capitalism is a function of Statism.

I mean, I don't think they should, but they did it with the banks in 2008.
Ironically I disagree with that, I only think the government should pay reparations because the government literally caused the harm.

Although you can argue that the gov did punish banks for not loaning to low-income individuals. I’m rusty on those details. But you get the point.

Banks paid the loans back with a hefty interest on top.