Yeah, if its the only option then it’s bad, but the convenience isn’t too be underestimated.
I rented when I was in Uni, didn’t even consider buying at that point. Didn’t want to commit that much money to a city i didn’t know if I wanted to live in.
it’s not renting that’s being criticized here; it’s specifically landlords.
renting is perfectly fine.
what is not fine, is that a public necessity is tied to a private individual or company that can charge whatever they want.
that last part is the problem.
vienna often gets cited as a notable example for large scale, affordable public housing projects, and while that is fair, the reason those are affordable, is because they are owned by the public, i.e. the city of vienna.
THAT’S how rent is supposed to work: for the people, by the people.
it’s how a society gets affordable housing, not this price gouging nonsense that neoliberal politics has popularized…
Couldn’t agree more. Paying some amount of money for upkeep and so forth makes sense, be it for your own home or for one you don’t own. Paying rent just to make someone else rich(er) should not be a thing in the first place in my opinion, because then the basic function changes from providing shelter to generating as much profit as possible. In every major city this problem is quite apparent: Exploding rents, vacant apartment complexes that only exist as speculation objects, owners not spending anything on maintenance because short term profits are more important than long term sustainability. Man, I could go on, but my mood tanked enough as it is haha
Yeah, if its the only option then it’s bad, but the convenience isn’t too be underestimated. I rented when I was in Uni, didn’t even consider buying at that point. Didn’t want to commit that much money to a city i didn’t know if I wanted to live in.
it’s not renting that’s being criticized here; it’s specifically landlords.
renting is perfectly fine.
what is not fine, is that a public necessity is tied to a private individual or company that can charge whatever they want.
that last part is the problem.
vienna often gets cited as a notable example for large scale, affordable public housing projects, and while that is fair, the reason those are affordable, is because they are owned by the public, i.e. the city of vienna.
THAT’S how rent is supposed to work: for the people, by the people.
it’s how a society gets affordable housing, not this price gouging nonsense that neoliberal politics has popularized…
Couldn’t agree more. Paying some amount of money for upkeep and so forth makes sense, be it for your own home or for one you don’t own. Paying rent just to make someone else rich(er) should not be a thing in the first place in my opinion, because then the basic function changes from providing shelter to generating as much profit as possible. In every major city this problem is quite apparent: Exploding rents, vacant apartment complexes that only exist as speculation objects, owners not spending anything on maintenance because short term profits are more important than long term sustainability. Man, I could go on, but my mood tanked enough as it is haha