this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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That's $15,000 a month, $180,000 a year before the price increase. Maybe try hunting for normal people rentals and others would have an ounce of care or sympathy for you.
I'd also wager that most of these people have properties themselves that they use to gouge money from others for "passive income". Well, they can passively suck it.
Yes, they suck.
But what they're gonna end up doing is renting a class down from what they were going to do, so they'll end up getting a house that would have been 60 grand a year, but is now 90 grand.
And the people who were going to do that are going to be renting a place that would have been cjlheape4, and so on.
In the end, the price-gouge4s on the high end raise rents for the rest of us. We've seen the same thing all over the country with the lack of available-for-purchase single-family homes as more and more places are build-to-rent only. That's kept renting apartments instead of buying houses, and apartment rents have skyrocketed.
There's a 1br apartment I rented about 10 years ago for $510/month. I just looked it up and it's now $1900 a month.
$800 when I moved in, I was paying $900 when I moved out over a decade later, it then rented immediately for $1600 after I moved out, and around $2000 now.
Wages have not kept up with that.
You are arguing about the difference between price gouging of a Toyota Corolla vs a McClaren GTS - necessity vs luxury.
The price gouging has been happening legally for years and nothing has changed or been done to fix it. The high-end clients in the article clearly own property if they're willing to spend that much on rent.
I have no sympathy for that specific example because it's reported like this is some novel, new experience, as opposed to it being a systemic issue that's plagued everyone else. My sympathy goes to the others mentioned in the article who clearly aren't in the market for luxury-class rentals.
Don't want to be priced gouged? Don't rent those luxury houses from the parasites. Lower your expectations and you might find something else more reasonable.
But sympathy, or lack thereof, isn't a requirement for the practice to be illegal and action to be taken, and I never said something shouldn't be done about it.
When the ultra-wealthy are suddenly in need of rentals and start renting regular houses and apartments, those houses can be rented for 5x the price.
The landlords will figure out that by massively increasing the rent, even with 2/3 houses empty, they'll make more money than they do now.
In your hyperbolic, unrealistic scenario, are the ultra-wealthy going to be permanently renting?
They're doing it for the short amount of time it's going to take for them to buy another mansion - they're in the rental market because of a disaster. Once they've recuperated, they're gone.
But let's say your exaggeration comes true. Do you think landlords would be able to continue renting for 5x the amount once their ultra-wealthy market dries up?
You seem to think I'm a proponent for the price gouging practice, so I'll reiterate: I'm not arguing that the problem should be ignored, and something needs to be done about it.
I simply have no sympathy for those looking to rent where a 20% increase equates to $3000 a month.
I don't give a fuck about the ultra-wealthy.
But I work in municipal development and have seen first-hand how housing impacts on the wealthy trickle down and screw everyone else.
They're talking about a rental house, and in LA of all places
Everyone is in the same rental hellscape - you can sympathize with people being exploited even if they're in a different tax bracket than you. Have some class consciousness, jesus
Class consciousness? Last I checked, a 3-4 bedroom rental house in the LA area has plenty of options in the $4k to $8k range.
Here's a few examples for you.
Zillow doesn't even have a "price minimum" filter option greater than $10k a month.
The article specifically states some rental properties were increased, and the only example they gave was a property in a range that literally 99% of the population can't afford. Is the 1% now suddenly in the same class that I need to be conscious about?
When rental prices only ever go up faster than wages, what you're looking at is the tip of the spear.
A decade or two ago, you'd be saying this about units renting for $5k.
Class is about labor relations, not income.
At best those people are petty bourgeois, but they are still renting in this case, so still being exploited by a capitalist. By any marxist interpretation they'd still be working-class.
I don't disagree with you at all.
My comment assumed that they're making enough to own passive income properties that they rent to people who don't own properties, which is not uncommon amongst those making enough to afford that kind of rent.
Renting doesn't make you part of the proletariat if you own private property that gives you money without working.
However, it's definitely presumptuous of me to make such assumptions about who they are and what they own, as much as it is of you to assume that they are part of the labor force and aren't just wealthy investment bankers, so I won't belabor the point.
Maybe, but there is clearly someone in this situation that is exploiting their position as a capital owner, and it isn't the renters.
Neither will I belabor the point about presuming high earners to be a part of the bourgeoisie.