Landlords steal your income

Okay, let me tell y’all why landlording is the biggest scam there is and why landlords shouldn’t exist (or in an extremely limited capacity).

First what is a landlord? A landlord is someone who privately owns land, real estate/housing for profit. So in other words, they only own the property to lease it to others for the sole purpose of making more money.

So you may ask, what’s wrong with someone who “worked hard” and now owns real estate for extra income? Imma tell you the problem.

Firstly, housing is a human right. It is the most important thing after food and water to be able to have the bare minimum of a decent life. Everyone *needs* housing and it needs to be affordable so that people can actually live there, particularly those who need it the most.

So why do you need to own something that people literally need to not die out on the street for profit? If someone who needs housing can’t afford your perhaps ridiculous prices they out. Landlords will only take in those who they deem profitable. The poor are disadvantaged.

Secondly, where is that profit coming from? It comes from the salary of those who are working so that they can pay you to live in a house. Why do they need to pay a significant portion of their salary to the landlord? What did that landlord actually do to deserve that income?

Now hold on, you might say, landlords provide service. They firstly provide you with housing, secondly they maintain the house and perform reparations and upgrades which cost a lot of money and time. But is that really the case?

Firstly, they don’t provide housing, they confiscate it for profit and permit those who they deem profitable to access it. Can’t afford it? Stay homeless, buddy. They’d keep that house empty rather than have a poor person there.

If they can’t put anyone in there, they’d rather let the house rot, save money and put a desperate person in there and raise the price untill they’re kicked out and the next victim enters.

Landlords have an incentive to invest as little money as possible and extract as much profit as possible, meaning they’d rather do the bare minimum and give you the highest rent as possible. Many landlords do this and many, including myself, can personally attest to that.

So you end up with them providing little service. And it does cost a lot of money, but where does that money come from, hmm? That’s right, your salaries, or money from the state, which you pay taxes for.

But how will they pay back the mortgage? You might ask. But why should I have to work full time, hand half my income to a shithead so that he can pay a mortgage with my money and then end up keeping it? You’re paying their house for them. How is this just?

Landlords confiscate housing and land, steal your income and ultimately makes housing unaffordable for profit. Not to mention the fact that someone else has your ability to be housed in their hands, which is a huge power imbalance.

This power imbalance results, predictably, in so much abuse, which again many including myself can attest to. It’s one of the most basic examples of how capitalists exploit labour and human need for profit.

Also, those with wealth are more easily able to buy houses and therefore increase their wealth. Housing is also inhereted, meaning wealth is accumulated generationally. Privately owning housing is yet another way wealth inequality gets bigger.

Landlords should not exist. At the very least they should be limited. If you want to buy a house, you need to live in it at least half a year for example.

But in principle, landlords should not exist. Everyone deserves to be housed before a single person or corporation deserves to exploit the labour of a tenant for profit.

Denzel

(This article was first published as a thread on Twitter.)