alexchamberlain parent
Why aren’t landlords a good thing? Is it unreasonable for people to provide a service to people seeking it?
Rent seeking is inherently immoral. Landlords are leeches.
This is a really unhelpful attitude. There are periods of life where buying doesn't make sense and it's financially impossible - landlords provide people with a home at these times. I'm not saying there aren't bad landlords - there are - but being a landlord isn't inherently bad; they are providing an essential service for society.
Depending on the service, sure.
Providing a place to live is surely not one of those services though. There will always been some portion of the population that can't afford to buy a home. Without landlords, what are those people supposed to do?
>Providing a place to live is surely not one of those services though
that's not what landlords are. That's the construction company or the building manager and he or she's indeed doing a great service. Landlords are absentee owners who extract economic rent. You can of course, like say Vienna, nationalize most of the housing stock and hire people who provide actual services just the same.