[hn_throwaway_99]

I 100% agree, but the difference you are pointing out relates to how a landlord acts and works with the community, not how they became a landlord in the first place. There are plenty of "small time landlords" who simply inherited a house when their parents passed away and chose to keep it to rent out. The author of the article is implying we should demonize these small time landlords because they didn't "scrimp and save their earned income over decades" (even though their parents did).