The horrible rent increases finally woke up the business community

[Stargazer99]

Seattle is considering some control in the horrible increases in rent. When people cannot pay the rent increase they have to move and hope something is available. It might mean changing schools. That might cause for difficulty for students already having learning problems. But who gives a damn unless it affects you, right? Capitalist system sure works doesn't it? Has it dawned on the average citizen who capitalism is working for?

[Marcus IM]

1. Treading on thin ice to be critical of capitalism here.

I was recently scolded here for objecting to the lauding of our corporate overlords by peeps wishing they had bought more shares of said corporate overlords who shipped the manufacturing to China and deconstructing the US labor market.

It's a big tent here, but it has subjective limits.

[Stargazer99]

2. Thank you for the warning-our "owners have too much control

[Marcus IM]

3. Self interest rules the day.

Everyone wants a good payday. Capitalism is how to achieve it. The more rapacious the better the payday for investors in our Wall Street overlords. I mean, look at how much legislators make over their congressional tenures. All but a few exceptions become mega millionaires.

[FakeNoose]

5. First clue - it's not their paychecks from Uncle Sam that make them ultra-wealthy

Legislators make wads of extra cash by speaking engagements on their "free time." Also writing books, giving endorsements, sitting on executive boards, shaking down lobbyists, advising ultra-wealthy buddies about new legislation coming up - there are so many ways to grift when you're a Senator or Representative. I'm not even talking about under-the-table stuff, but there's that too.

We want to believe that only Repukes do it, but this is an area where "both sides are doing it" really is the case. It's just that the Repukes seem so obvious and blatant.

[uponit7771]

17. +1, unfettered capitalism sucks azz ... time for caps and priorities for houses being non investors

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. I live in Seattle

and rent near me, for a 2 bedroom basement apartment, is around $3000. That's completely insane.

[Bucky]

7. A big part of the problem is investors buying properties for "passive income"

That really ought to be outlawed. It drives up prices without adding any benefit to tenants. It's predatory. It certainly should be illegal for corporations to buy single family homes.

Unfortunately, if you just outlaw that and drive down housing prices, you screw millions of middle class families by gutting the dollar value of their homesteads, which many have tied up their family fortunes in or in case they need to cash out in their silver years.

It's a thorny issue.

[Stargazer99]

13. Private equity bought out to hospitals in low income area

and financially burned them down-private equity needs control and oh hospitals. they are buying private homes and selling them for large profits and the hospitals, get sold off

[CousinIT]

6. Avg citizen blames 'the poor', people of color, immigrants...

...because that's what the propaganda tells them -- all while it IGNORES corprat welfare, corprat socialism, corprat-friendly tax laws that lets them off tax-free while they rake in billions, abusive price gouging, profit-at-any-cost to the planet or the economy or most American families. People don't know the truth because they're being lied to (mostly by omission - some by propaganda) - by the media and the MAGAts.

[dlk]

8. Capitalism is fine

However, without rules, it is legalized piracy.

[LisaM]

9. I live in Seattle, and it's awful.

But, the problem is with the state legislature. Rent control in Washington state is illegal. Unless the state finds a will, it won't happen.

They are too fearful, the way they are also afraid of implementing a state income tax. We have some of the most regressive taxes in the country.

[andym]

10. When there are no workers available due to high rents, the local companies will raise salaries

or go out of business. Real estate investors are a key group contributing to inflation..

[oldtime dfl_er]

18. This kind of thing takes a long time

There already aren't enough workers in this city and yet rent keeps going up.

[brooklynite]

11. "Will the last person leaving Seattle please turn out the lights"

Seattle in 1971.

Before the anti-capitalist pile-on gets too energetic, let me point out (as an urban planner) that cities are dynamic things. They ebb and flow according to local economics and politics. An apartment in Detroit will cost you about $1,200, but how many people want to live there?

Increased desire to live there means that the cost of housing is going to go up. Suppressing the market rate of rentals or sales will meet an immediate need, but it will also mean that landlords won't invest in new housing and maintenance if a reasonable return isn't possible.

[Stargazer99]

14. Reasonable return is that all that matters? How about the quality of life

the whole system is no higher than the animals in the field-animals feed off of each other just like the present capitalistic system

[multigraincracker]

12. Adam Smith on markets, competition and violations of natural liberty

https://academic.oup.com/cje/article-abstract/40/2/615/2605099?login=false

Abstract

According to Adam Smith, markets and trade are, in principle, good things—provided there is competition and a regulatory framework that prevents ruthless selfishness, greed and rapacity from leading to socially harmful outcomes. But competition and market regulations are always in danger of being undermined and circumnavigated, giving way to monopolies that are very comfortable and highly profitable to monopolists and may spell great trouble for many people. In Smith’s view, political economy—as an important, and perhaps even the most important, part of a kind of master political science, encompassing the science of the legislator —has the task to fight superstition and false beliefs in matters of economic policy, to debunk opinions that present individual interests as promoting the general good and to propose changing regulatory frameworks for markets and institutions that help to ward off threats to the security of society as a whole and provide incentives such that self-seeking behaviour has also socially beneficial effects. The paper shows that the ideas of Adam Smith still may resonate and illuminate the problems of today and the theories that try to tackle them.


He was the Father of modern Capitalism with his book Wealth of Nations. Then along came the Neo-Liberals and changed it to benefit the rich.

[Warpy]

15. Hard to know what the solution is

Some cities have tried rent control to keep their essential but low paid workers housed. Others were laissez faire, essential workers being driven out into exurbs and beyond, often facing commutes of over an hour to get to work. Rent control saw housing being kept off the market and poor or absent maintenance in occupied housing.

Government housing was also a flop since it tended to concentrate the poorest in one area with no amenities.

The only solution is a fairer wage structure, probably combined with a more progressive tax structure.

[multigraincracker]

16. Base it on a portion of 40 hours pay at minimum wage.

Might see a call for a rise in wages.