Photuris

“Legal” doesn’t mean shit if no one enforces it.

Alas, nothing has been enforced yet.

Will it? Will judicial orders ever be enforced? I don’t know.

What will it take for it to happen? Something ugly?

That’s one (of many) reasons I don’t want to give up remote work.

Bosses say that remote work misses “the human element” and “face to face” time.

Yes, and I couldn’t be more happy about it.

My comment was deleted for being too hardcore I guess (even though it got upvotes, so at least someone agrees with me). But I spoke zero lies and I 100% stand by what I said.

Regardless, I’ll rephrase in a gentler way: empathy is wasted on these people. They are effectively irredeemable.

I say we dispense with empathy. Casting pearls before swine, and all that.

If we wish to defeat Fascism, we cannot be gentle.

Our grandfathers who defeated Fascism in Europe didn’t do it by being understanding and forgiving. Allied soldiers dragged German citizens to the concentration camps and made them look at it.

Sometimes shaming is exactly what you need to do.

100% we need to switch back to entirely paper ballots, even if it takes months to determine a winner.

Well, they’re certainly not “conservatives.” I see no conserving going on.

So, what do we do?

They will be, when it affects them personally.

In other words, typical Republican thinking.

Protestors are adults who understand and accept the risks.

People are going to die defending democracy. And the jackboots will most likely shoot first. We all know this.

War is coming, let’s stop pretending it’s not gonna happen.

Some people want to rent (e.g., young people, people with mobile jobs, or people who just aren’t ready to be tied down to one place).

And I don’t have a problem with a small-time property owner renting out a house at a fair rate. In theory it’s a win-win: the renter gets a place to stay, the landlord builds equity in their property.

The issue we have is two-fold:

1. Companies buying up massive amounts of property (not just a house or two, but thousands) and turning entire neighborhoods into rent zones, driving out any competition and availability of housing to buy, thereby driving up prices.

2. Price collusion amongst these companies, driving up rent far above fair rates, using these software services that share going rates across markets. That reduces consumer choice.

Barring a really interesting solution, like a Land Value Tax or something, my proposal to remediate this housing problem is rather straight-forward and simple:

1. Prohibit these software companies from sharing rental rates info to customers. Landlords just need to figure it out in their own markets the old fashioned way.

2. Prohibit corporations from buying housing with the intention to rent it. Force these corporations to sell their housing and get out of the landlord business.

3. Allow individuals to hold property for renting out, but cap number of properties a person or household can own for the express intention of renting out to five at any given time. That allows a person to build up a nice little savings nest, and provide a rental property to someone who wants to rent, but doesn’t allow anyone to dominate a housing market. Look for those massive profits elsewhere - start a business that creates and provides value.

Anyway, one can dream, I guess.