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1/This was an interesting and controversial post. I sympathize with the guy who doesn't want to be a landlord. I will try to explain why... https://twitter.com/colinmort/status/1296252785164509186
2/I don't see anything inherently morally wrong with being a landlord. But I think it probably cultivates bad habits of mind, as well bad political incentives.
Essentially, being a landlord can turn you into a rentier and a NIMBY.
Essentially, being a landlord can turn you into a rentier and a NIMBY.
3/Landlords often find it in their economic interests to evict people. That creates a toxic relationship -- a very real and immediate inequality of power. A sort of lord-and-vassal relationship with someone who lives near you, whose life you can ruin with the stroke of a pen.
4/And doing harsh things to people for money can exert a long-term influence over one's morality and self-image as well.
Once you evict a family simply because they fell on hard times, you'll have to live with yourself forever. That will change you.
Once you evict a family simply because they fell on hard times, you'll have to live with yourself forever. That will change you.
5/If you want a taste of the kind of things landlords feel economically compelled to do to vulnerable and unlucky families, just read "Evicted", by Matthew Desmond. https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447459
6/Next, politics.
As a landlord, you will find it in your economic interest to block any development, upzoning, or affordable housing that would decrease your property value. https://sf.curbed.com/2020/2/20/21122662/san-francisco-bay-area-nimbys-history-nimby-development
As a landlord, you will find it in your economic interest to block any development, upzoning, or affordable housing that would decrease your property value. https://sf.curbed.com/2020/2/20/21122662/san-francisco-bay-area-nimbys-history-nimby-development
7/Of course this is true for homeowners in general.
But the more of your wealth is tied up in land values, the more you'll be pushed to be a NIMBY. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-28/how-homeownership-contributes-to-political-divides?sref=R8NfLgwS
But the more of your wealth is tied up in land values, the more you'll be pushed to be a NIMBY. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-28/how-homeownership-contributes-to-political-divides?sref=R8NfLgwS
8/And this is probably even MORE true if you're not rich. The larger a percent of your nest egg depends on creating an artificial scarcity of rental housing, the harder you will probably fight to create and maintain that artificial scarcity.
9/Anecdotally, I have seen a number of young people -- mostly white, mostly from upper-middle-class families -- become petty landlords using their parents' wealth. I've seen them become lazy rentiers, cracking down on tenants, supporting NIMBYism, not working real jobs, etc.
10/And (again anecdotally) these folks are often politically socialist, railing against the distant super-rich even as they perpetuate the structures of petty local inequalities.
11/In this life, we must always think about what kind of person we want to become. We get a chance to choose the influences and incentives that will shape our future selves. And landlording, though not inherently morally wrong, can potentially shape us in bad ways.
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