Saving America's renters

[luzribeiro]

The $50 billion race to save America’s renters from eviction

My thoughts:
1 The last thing the US needs is more homeless people.
2 The landlords aren't in it for their health. Moreover, they also have bills to pay.
3 Once the government starts to subsidize day to day living expenses, it's difficult to quit. See also: Food stamps
4 There is no easy short-term solution to this problem other than a government bail-out.
5 The long-term solution is for people to have decent jobs that pay enough to live on, you know, like they did 40 years ago, and for them to forego luxuries that they can't afford to pay for.
6 Unfortunately, the trend is away from jobs that pay a living wage and away from fiscal responsibility on the part of the consumer.
7 The government doesn't owe everyone a living, and can't provide one anyway.

Comments

[dewline]

Reality doesn't seem to care about item 7.

[acequeenking]

Didn't people blame the 1929 depression on, in part, people using credit willy-nilly to buy fancy new doodads and whatchamacallits and then be unable to pay them back when boom time went bust? 6) reminded me of that.

I feel like you will see people shame one another for that rather than the fact that well-paying American jobs have been and continue to shrink, much akin to how people shame one another for using plastic straws but not the major polluters of the world for global warming...

[peristaltor]

The US has zero limit on how high rents can go, so we have simultaneous hikes in rent and homelessness. At the same time, investment income has crashed, with fewer and fewer start-ups promising to make a profit, so spare money has rushed into buying apartments and houses in record numbers, with a subsequent rent hike inevitable. One example: for the first time in its European history, my city (Seattle) has more renters than home owners.

We are ground zero for neofeudalism, and landlords are simply repeating their role as actual lords, minus the noblesse oblige requisite in an actual civilization.