this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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Six paragraphs of you not understanding the issue: the problem is not the concept of renting a living space for a given time, the problem is private rent, i.e. rent for the landowner's profit.
Every single problem with current rent could be solved by socializing housing and making it available to rent at production+maintenance prices, and people could still move freely without being tied to a house in particular, without the risk of being evicted, would be able to paint the walls and have pets...
Just because things could theoretically be handled differently doesn't make landlords "thieves" as the title claims.
I'm currently a home owner and not a landlord, but if I would become a landlord, it wouldn't be in my power to implement any of your solutions, leaving in the middle whether they have merit or not.
All I can do is try to live in the system that exists, and in that context there's nothing unethical about charging rent to provide someone exclusive access to a property that I worked 20 years for to pay off plus 10 years to save for the down payment. Like, I'm just a wage slave myself and there's literally over 250k of my own money in my house ... why should I have to give that away for free? Seems to me that trying to take the fruits of my labor (i.e. the house that I worked for) for free is the thievery here.
It would be in your power to set the rent. If you set the rent at the cost of maintenance + any other recurring costs, then yes, it's totally fair. If you set the rent such that you make a profit, you'd be earning money for doing nothing.
The property that you worked 20 years to pay off and 10 to pay the down payment for is yours, you get to keep it. You don't have to give it away for free, you'll either sell it for a fair price and keep that money, or your heirs will have it. All that the opponents of rentseeking and landlordism are asking for is that you not use the property to make profit between now and when you sell it or pass it on to your heirs.