The middle class fell for the lie that domestic tranquillity could be ensure by providing bread and circuses to the masses on borrowed money without being taxed sufficiently to pay for it.
The middle class killed itself; it is in its death throes now.
Ain't the Great Society wonderful?
You're close, but not quite there. The middle class fed and clothed itself with bread and circuses to the masses on borrowed money without being sufficiently taxed. They took their fatty share, bought a few houses, and have since been retiring and living off rents, telling the next generation that they're good for nothing lazy idiots who need to learn how to work harder if they can't afford to live 5 in a house. All while calling for the same programs that provided them bread and circuses to be cut, so that they can continue to be insufficiently taxed.
I did not ever imply the self-centered bastards learned their lessons; Obama did get re-elected, and they clamor for Hillary next despite all her crookedness and lies.
Not much changed.
I have a house I culd rent out, but, I refuse to because I consider it immoral.
I will sell it or leave it empty, but never rent it.
Hmmm, I guess that's your choice, though I don't understand it. Not sure what's immoral about it. But your house, your decision.
My point was simply to highlight the fact that much of what you describe takes place along generational divides, and tends to be based on world views developed in the vacuumous ego-centrism of disparate comparisons across the timeline.
Maybe just exploitive, not immoral.
I hate paying interest too, and when I loan money to friends or family, I never charge interest.
I think it's only exploitative if you charge exorbitant rent, are a slum lord, etc. In the past few years especially, as people have tried to cope with the collapse of the housing bubble and pass the buck on their own foolish house purchases for which they overpaid, there has been an influx of people who are viciously trying to make a quick buck off their house with any scheme they can. It's becoming very common for people to rent out houses piecemeal, renting (or trying to, at least) individual rooms in a three or four bedroom house for just barely less than an apartment. A few years back I was looking for a new place and came across a guy who was renting rooms out of a house for $600 a piece (in that area, a single bedroom would run for $600-$900) who wanted me to rent out the dining room of the house with a blanket pinned up as a door as if it were a bedroom. The place already had 5 bedrooms to it. I rejected it, but a few months later I found out someone who worked where I did ended up renting one of the rooms, and told me that even though the house was less than 10 years old, it was poorly maintained, and the owner was now was cramming a couple of the rooms with two people at $400 a head. The place was also infested with roaches and the landlord refused to exterminate because he said he couldn't afford it. It got me to doing some research and I found out that the owner had bought it in 2007 brand new, and could not have been realistically paying more than $1300 a month mortgage. Here he is pulling in $3k a month in rent off the place and can't be bothered to exterminate, and kept the thermostat padlocked and remote operated for 65* in the winter and 85* in the summer. My poor coworker had a hard time looking for other options because he just barely couldn't afford an apartment on his own and living in a small town made it hard to find someone who was looking for a roommate, in a place that was in his budget. That kind of shit is exploitative.
But if you're offering a fair product at a fair price and are reasonably living up to your landlord responsibilities, then there's nothing exploitative about that. There's someone out there who needs a fair rental home at a fair rental price. You could be the guy who ends up helping them out. If there were more people in the rental market offering fair homes at fair prices, it would suck the wind out of the price gougers who are flooding the place nowadays.
