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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Surely there must be a middle way.
I don't mind renting land from the state. I pay my property tax and income tax and in return get protection from the police and military and health care and more, basically a whole society to live in.
The problem is that the landlords set themselves as the middleman who rent the land from the state and sublet it to the people. I don't remember any of my landlords defending me or my belongings from wilderbeasts or other people. They're just middlemen who have increased the potential pricing of all the land so that it is no longer affordable for everyone to rent directly from the state. They can only do this because they have enough capital to get their hands on the land in the first place, or by inheritance. The price of the land is artificial. It's not about how much it's worth for anyone living there. No, the price is only about how much can theoretically be leeched off the people needing to live on that land
Landlords aren't renting land from the state, they own the land, the state is just collecting a protection fee from them since landlords generally don't have an army to defend them and their property from attackers.
What's the difference?
Saying landlords are renting and then subletting makes it sound like they're double dipping, just a passive middle man contributing nothing. They're not renting from the state, they're the owners who take on all the risk and other costs associating with full ownership. They pay for maintenance, they're subject to value changes in real estate markets. They bear the cost if someone builds a dump next door and tanks their value. Their asset is very un-liquid. The tenant can walk away from the property somewhat easily, but the landlord has to find a buyer.
Of course, some landlords actually do nothing. As long as we have a healthy competitive market where people can relatively easily build new housing, this competition would punish landlords who don't provide a good product. Unfortunately in a lot of the US building new housing is very difficult due to NIMBYism, zoning restrictions, and sometimes too harsh environmental or historical review.