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Up until the communism part I thought they were endorsing him.
I mean, maybe they are a communist, and like the ideas and are endorsing him!
dont you mean marxist part.
If Communism is when wages go up and cost of living goes down, what is Capitalism?
assets get concentrated, rent goes up
That’s just the efficiency of the free market. Mamdani would ruin a perfect system.
This system is already about as perfect as I can handle
Next step: Everything goes to shit for normal people, they vote for fascists. Fascists take over, and people get concentrated as well, into camps.
What’s the rent there like and what happens to my student l*ans and is life outside the camp worth living anyway?
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief. “Bad news, detective. We got a situation.” “What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?” “Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.” The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?” “Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.” “Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.” He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.” “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.” I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside. “Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t. “Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up. “Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?” It didn’t seem like they did. “Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.” Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing. I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it. “Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled. Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him. “Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen. I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!” He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose. “All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.” “Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy. “Because I was afraid.” “Afraid?” “Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.” I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head. “Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.” He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.
Some classic pasta right there.
Brought to you by Carl’s Jr
“I’m a central banker.” I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner.
My favorite part lol
Existence, privatized.
cost of living goes up quality of living goes up (for some) and the poor get poorer
Y’know what always annoys me about this type of statement (aside from it being socialism and not communism lol) is the amount of tax it takes isn’t even that much in the grand scheme of things, PLUS it generally pays for itself in not having to imprison people or treat emergency room visits, etc.
People just have a very hard time grasping governmental budgets, though. The cost of paying for 200k housing sounds like a lot but man is it not compared to some of the other shit we waste money on.
PLUS it generally pays for itself
That’s just how taxes work when done right: you take some money from everyone to make everything better so that it’s cheaper for most people to be alive.
SNAP, for example, benefits the economy to the tune of at least $7 for every dollar invested. That’s the kind of return on investment that makes greedy fucks like Pitbull cream their pants.
I heard preschool is around $8 per dollar, although it’s maybe even higher than that. Basically, ya. Frustrating when people can’t see the forest from the trees.
FYI, the user in the screenshot is not Pitbull the artist.
We can refer to him, the artist, as “Mr. Worldwide” to reduce confusion.
Still sounds like a greedy fuck so the point stands 🤷
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Whoa. Is this true?! What? No. Please no.
It might just be cost? Idr the exavt statistic, and i know most cops get paid 6 figures, which i assume mos[ soldiers do not.
Based on the ads I see on the subway, NYPD correctional officers start in the mid‑US$50Ks.
Thwy write their own time sheets including overtime. So they can crack half a million if they’re greedy (with multipliers, like 9th+ hour on a holiday)
34k-ish sworn members. They have more boots and better arms than a lot of small nations.
“But at 8 million, also a larger population than some nations”, @lars@lemmy.sdf.org added defensively.
How the fuck is a higher minimum wage anything but our current system?
I’m not convinced it’s not satire
$20 is socialism and $30 is communism. I’m sure Karl Marx said something like that.
Why oh why do we peg it to a number rather than to a metric, even if it were Big Macs ffs!!!
They need to base politicians salaries off minimum wage. If they only earned a salary based off 4-5x the minimum wage, that shit would never be lagging as bad as it is now
this only works if they stop them from being able to hold investments in companies, and markets, they pass laws for, as well as getting rid of political donations. If we don’t do that their salary going down would only negatively affect the small number of congress members that want actual change to things.
I have a solution, make it legal to kill politicians who hold investments or take bribes. They become outlaw and anything done to them is just the consequences of their actions.
Why 4x minimum wage? How could they represent the poorest people in a country if they make quadruple the money?
If they cant live with minimum wage, its their problem to solveIt’s [supposed to be] a demanding position. Relative to the skills we should be demanding these people to have, the pay they currently get is actually not that impressive.
4 times as demanding sounds kinda funny. 254000× or whatever sounds like religious fairy tales. To the guillotines.
Wtf are you talking about? Congress’s salary is only ~178k.
Congress is the 4. Private sector is the ∞.
No one in this thread had mentioned private sector. Try to stay on topic.
It’s not the already obscenely rich accumulating more wealth to the detriment of everyone else, which is the inevitable consequence of the current system of laissez faire capitalism.
For some reason the quotes around the word free make it seem not satirical to me.
I don’t care what you call it, I want that. Call it doodoo pickle butting, if it offers that, sign me up for everyone else too.
Thats the thing, im past the stupid naming and everything. I just want policies that help people and not billionaires. Call it marxism, stalinism, whatever the fuck you want.
It’s a pathetic attempt to rile the old people who remember the cold war propaganda against communism and socialism. While young people are like “So what?”
I have a 20-something son who basically grew up with MAGA shitting on everything. From his perspective ( and his friends), they don’t see anything wrong with trying out Socialism/ Marxism/ Communism. They feel like the current system of “Democratic Capitalism” has led to the rise of vicious MAGA Nazis, and weak Democratic defenders of our Nation, with the majority of Americans suffering to some degree, so why are we fighting so hard to preserve it?
When we emerge from the other side of this, don’t expect America to go back to anything resembling what it was before.
When we emerge from the other side of this, don’t expect America to go back to anything resembling what it was before.
One can only hope so. What we had before wasn’t great either and pretty much lead to how things are now.
Exactly. In a way, we agree with MAGA, it’s time for a change. They took the initiative, and turned the country in their direction, which is evil, by any definition.
The Establishment Democrats were asleep at the wheel while this played out over 40 years, despite many warnings and steady escalations. Now, we have arrived at their Promised Land, and it is as ugly as they promised, and as a student of history, I promise you it WILL get a lot uglier, likely far beyond any of our imaginations.
We can’t return to the Status Quo, because that WAS the problem. We need to create a new Paradigm, one that will not be afraid to ferociously defend Liberty from Traitors, Crooks, and worse.
Yeah sadly that doesnt work here in eastern europe because communism and even social democratism(what this actually is) is associated with the ussr which was a truly horrible regime.
Eastern Europeans are some of the most gullible people on earth. Stalin never even claimed that the USSR had achieved communism, yet somehow every grandma in his “state socialist” empire thinks full communism was reached and the state withered away like Marx predicted. They believe lies he never even told.
I understand that’s the power of propaganda, but damn… It’s been 40 years and most of them never bothered to sit down and learn what a communism is. I can’t imagine being that willfully ignorant.
can’t imagine being that willfully ignorant.
I have some trump supporting neighbors I’d like to introduce you to.
Stalin never even claimed that the USSR had achieved communism, yet somehow every grandma in his “state socialist” empire thinks full communism was reached and the state withered away like Marx predicted. They believe lies he never even told.
He did claim to be communist though - as in, he is ideologically driven to attempt to bring about communism. So calling the USSR “communist” is 100% correct. And naturally, what do you call life under communists? Communism! (This is wrong, but it’s an understandable switch-up).
Well, that’s where I have to disagree with Stalin’s official narrative. I don’t think he was a communist, I think he was an opportunist with no ideology beyond personal empowerment. I think he’d have said he believed in anything if it gave him more power.
Sounds a lot like trump
To elaborate on the evidence for this:
Marx said after the workers seize the state, it should become unnecessary and wither away. Stalin was the primary person in charge of overseeing this process. He should have been encouraging the development of community governance. Helping set up neighbourhood watches so he could defund the police. Granting power over workplaces to the trade unions. Encouraging the gift economy to grow to the point that the ruble could be cancelled. These were always the steps in the plan to get from the USSR to a communist system.
Stalin didn’t want to do that, because it would have made him less powerful. Instead of defunding the police, he expanded their powers. Instead of empowering the trade unions, he put down workers’ revolts. This is the opposite of communism.
I’m surprised it’s not more associated with France since social democracy is what the have going on.
Call it butt sex and then we can also claim this was the gay agenda we kept hearing about.
‘“Free” stuff is actually paid by our taxes, checkmate liberal!’
‘…uh, yeah?’
It’s funny that they never complain about the “free” roads or the “free” police.
I feel like this doesn’t get called out more often as the straw man that it is. Right-wingers just love mocking the left for supposedly wanting “free” stuff.
I find it fascinating how nowadays, basic human decency is called “woke” and “communism”.
It’s the primary symptom of being infected with the broke mind virus, which effectively all republicans suffer.
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I think this is why we’ll never have a UBI/leisure society/Star Trek style utopia. We are miserable biological apes and revel in other’s misery.
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And yet, railing against observed reality is …???
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Amen brother. Anyone who says “that’s just the way it is” is giving up. That’s not the way it is, that’s the way it was MADE. By powerful evil people, and we can remake it.
Please don’t assume masculinity, but yes.
I would phrase as ‘that’s the way it is because of constant work to make it that way, and it was not and will not always be that way’.
Amen sibling?
Hmm, I can’t hear that in Hulk Hogan’s voice, but for you, I’ll make the exception. 😜
We […] revel in other’s misery.
Well, i don’t.
Fantastic. I’m hungry, when can I come over?
If you’re actually hungry I can help you find food.
Now.
There’s plenty of studies showing that conservatism, sadism, and psychopathy correlate.
This is one of the main reasons Republicans don’t like education. They want to dismantle it and go to a charter system. That way they can profit off education and keep people stupid.
You forgot “woke communism”
i wish communism was as cool as republicans make it sound
It’s even cooler
I’ll believe it when I see it. Not to say that I’m not willing to give it a shot, fuck knows what we’re doing now isn’t fucking working.
We have never found a perfect political/economic system. That’s why it’s so important that we continue to evolve what we have to be better. I feel like this has stalled out in this country and we are seeing the fallout live.
What we really should have:
Fully automated luxury gay space communism!
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You are a special kind of stupid (and brainwashed) if you think any of those things listed are bad
And also completely unrelated to Communism.
Wow, he wants to provide people dignity and a high quality of life. How terrifying.
Taxed and have it spent on genocide abroad.
Taxed and spent on you.
It’s your choice.
Conservatives posting his Ws all the time. They’re his best advertisers.
cool marxism sounds awesome where’s my hammer and sickle
I don’t agree with freezing rent.
The entire concept of rent needs to die in a goddamn fire. Legislation needs to kill the entire idea, not further legitimize it.
We need massive, punitive increases in residential property taxes, with commensurate owner-occupant exemptions: You will not see a tax increase on the property you live in, but any investment property you own is going to see you saddled with a huge tax bill. This might come as a shock, but Corporate landlords don’t occupy their properties. They are not able to claim the owner occupant credit.
But, if you own a second property and lease it to me, we can convert our arrangement from a rental to a “land contract”. I, the occupant, become the legal owner. I continue to make payments. You don’t get to increase those payments over time; they are fixed for the duration of the agreement. If I leave in the first three years, you retain 100% equity in the property. If I stay beyond three years, our agreement converts to a mortgage, and I start gaining equity.
Basically, the only properties that will still be able to be feasibly rented are the remaining units in duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes, where the landlord lives in one of the units.
Renting is an option and convenience for a lot of people, that’s why it exists. Some people don’t want to be tied to a mortgage and might have reasons they only need a place for 6 or 12 months - temporary employment, contracting, studying or whatever.
Anyway renting can work as a model. Germany has a very large proportion of property which is rented. But they have strong tenant protections and place limits on rent hikes, evictions and so on.
I don’t think an outright freeze is a good idea but rent controls and tenant laws would help. As would making casual letting (airbnb etc) a bullshit onerous proposition so that more housing stock is sold or converts into long term rent which lessens rent pressure.
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Renting is an option and convenience for a lot of people, that’s why it exists
Those people are called “landlords”.
Some people don’t want to be tied to a mortgage and might have reasons they only need a place for 6 or 12 months - temporary employment, contracting, studying or whatever.
I think I failed to convey the fact that land contracts provide that exact function. The occupant can unilaterally cancel the contract in the first three years, walking away free and clear. Just like ending a rental agreement. I’m not interfering with short-term housing or tying people to homes they don’t want. I’m protecting short term tenants from exploitation, even if they decide to make their temporary plans into a permanent home.
Anyway renting can work as a model. Germany
I don’t know about Germany, but corporate entities are rapidly buying up residential properties in the US. Many are using the same third-party algorithm to establish their rent prices. No amount of government regulation of their business model can effectively suppress the effects of such widespread collusion. They are actively working around rent controls and other tenancy protections.
The solution is to make traditional renting unfeasible for the landlord. Replace it with a system where investors are effectively forced to convey ownership interest if they want to profit from providing housing.
“Renting” will not be feasible for corporate investors once we establish an owner-occupancy exemption to residential property taxes. When we establish that exemption, we are free to peg the property tax rate to the owner-occupancy rate. Any year the rate is below 80%, the effective property tax rate for investors increases by 20%. It doesn’t start dropping again until the owner occupancy rate exceeds 90%. Corporate landlords will be forced to sell outright, or get their tenants under a land contract instead of a rental agreement. Vacant properties will incur the full wrath of the tax man.
I can only speak of personal experience but I rented when I went to university. I rented during my first 3 jobs. I rented when I relocated to another country. I rented when I was contracting for 6 months in another city (I had already purchased a house elsewhere). In every case I had no intention of buying a(nother) house. I rented because I wanted to, not because of greedy corporate overlords forced me to.
Most people renting are in similar situations. They want to be somewhere for a year or two, to make plans or move on, but not be tied down with debt or obligations if they want to leave. There is nothing stopping them buying a property but there is a commitment and obligation they don’t want to get into.
So rent is not going away any time soon. Legislation is necessary to curb the worse abuses, but pretending people don’t want to rent is is a failed argument.
This is the third time I have pointed out that “land contracts” can fulfill the purposes you are describing.
In every situation you mentioned, a “land contract” would have performed exactly the same function is “renting”.
I understand you:
- Rented when you went to university
- Rented when you took a job
- Rented when you took another job
- Rented when you took a third job
- Rented when you took a contract in another city.
The only difference you would have experienced between “renting” and “land contract” is that the top of each of those five agreements would have said “Land Contract” instead of “Rental Agreement”.
Yes, a Land Contract has additional terms and conditions that only apply if you stay more than three years. You are not obligated to stay those three years. You can unilaterally end the contract before those three years.
You should be able to understand that “Renting” is more convenient for the landlord. Not the occupant. The people who knowingly want “rental agreements” are landlords not tenants. Landlords want to be able to hike rental payments every year; land contracts have the monthly payment fixed from day one. A “rent freeze” is a fundamental component built directly into a land contract.
There is nothing stopping them buying a property but there is a commitment and obligation they don’t want to get into.
“Land Contracts” do not have the additional commitments and obligations you are describing. Those are components of traditional purchase agreements. They are not components of Land Contracts.
Again: You can walk away, free and clear, in the first three years. You have the option of staying longer, in which case your payments begin to generate equity in the property. But you are not obligated to say, and you can also renegotiate the contract after three years if you really don’t want that equity.
(Practically speaking, you would be able to walk away entirely after those three years as well. If you did, your landlord would have to cut you a check to buy out your acquired equity before he could take on another tenant)
So rent is not going away any time soon.
No. “Short Term Housing Needs” are not going away soon. I am not suggesting they should. The need for temporary housing is perfectly reasonable, and I am preserving the means of filling that need, even as I kill “renting”.
Why am I so concerned about land contracts? I’m not. I don’t actually give a fuck about land contracts at all. What I want is for corporate landlords to be assessed property taxes that are so high that they are forced out of the market. The best way I know how to do that is to run up everyone’s property taxes, and exempt owner-occupants from paying them. That tax hike alone is all we really need. To get that tax hike, I have to explain to you that I won’t be cutting off the supply of short-term housing.
“Land Contracts” are what landlords are going to use to adapt to that tax hike. A landlord who tries to “rent” is going to have to pay a massive property tax bill. That same landlord can issue a “land contract” instead of a rental agreement. The monthly payment for that land contract will be lower, but because the property tax hike is exempted for the “owner occupant”, they will actually earn more than they would renting.
Tenants will start earning equity instead of paying everything to a landlord. There will be a “rent” freeze, simply because that is an inherent component of land contracts. Corporate landlords lose their ability to hike rent year after year. Short-term housing is still available. Wins across the board.
Rent needs to die in a goddamn fire.
So what you’re saying, is you’re renaming the word to “rent” to “land contract” and move a few conditions around and somehow it’s not rent? It is rent, by a different name.
Yes, and no.
Rent is usually an annual contract, with penalties for early termination, and is subject to hikes each and every year.
Land contracts are a purchase agreement that can be canceled unilaterally by the buyer in the first three years. Land contracts have a fixed payment for the life of the contract: “rent control” is incorporated into them directly.
But, you’re missing the underlying reason why we are talking about land contracts at all. The underlying factor is a massive hike in property taxes, which is only effectively implemented against corporate investors. We are establishing an owner-occupant exemption that will effectively lower property taxes for owner occupants, but will not be available to corporate landlords.
The underlying objective is to drive these corporate parasites out of the housing market. The only reason we are talking about land contracts at all is to assure you that the needs of tenants are not being ignored as we destroy these corporate parasites. (It also has a secondary effect of giving borrowers some leverage over lenders. While the lender is negotiating to keep the borrower in their home, the owner-occupant exemption is in place. As soon as they begin foreclosure proceedings, the property tax rate skyrockets.)
For the short-term tenant, yes, it is just rent by another name.
For the long-term tenant, it is an effective route to home ownership.
For the corporate landlord, it is the first stage of being choked out of the residential property market.
For the small-time landlord, it is a transition to “private lender”.
For the on-site landlord, in one unit of a duplex, triplex, or quadplex, it is a competitive advantage on actual rent.
sounds overcomplicated, why not just rebrand the so called “land contract” into renting?
edit: wouldn’t land contracts required idiotic amounts of identification as opposed to renting which requires none?
Because landlords dont want land contracts. They make more on rent.
All we have to do is set up an owner-occupant exemption to a massive property tax hike. Landlords won’t be eligible for that exemption.
Landlords will use land contracts to get around that hike. They’ll be pushing for tenants to become owners in order to avoid the tax man.
edit: wouldn’t land contracts required idiotic amounts of identification as opposed to renting which requires none?
No. It’s an agreement between two parties. They require no more identification than any other agreement between two parties.
Technically, the agreement should be registered with the county as it affects the deed of the property, but that isn’t strictly necessary for the first three years.
I don’t think you read what you were replying to.
Yeah, I prefer to rent because buying here is only reasonable (because of taxes, notary costs, etc) if you will live in that place for more than about 8 years. I usually move before that.
There will always be a market for relatively short term living spaces; a gap currently filled by rentals.
Any person who is not living in a place temporarily, eg, for school or a temporary job posting or something, should have the ability to buy a home at an affordable price, without fail.
The housing market is saturated with house flippers and people with more money than sense looking to become a landlord so they can have an “income property”.
IMO, all rentals should be either run, controlled, or at least strictly overseen by a specific branch of government dedicated to the task. Anyone who wants to become a renter has to get their rental property approved for renting, and approvals only happen if more rentals are strictly required.
Land contracts fulfill the role of short term housing (6-36 months) at least as well as renting, with additional benefits if short term extends to long term. In the short term, there is no significant difference in the two, with the exception of the Owner-Occupant Tax Exemption I have been proposing. That exemption ensures that land contracts will be cheaper, yet more lucrative than renting.
Rent is inherently exploitative. No amount of government oversight can overcome the intrinsic problems with renting. The entire concept needs to be actively suppressed. Government oversight can’t fix the inherently exploitive problems with rent. That’s just trying to polish a turd.
What we need is an economic climate that favors owner occupancy and strongly discourages commercial use of residential property. With that environment, landlords will be fighting tooth and nail to convert their tenants into buyers.
I agree but that’s not going to happen overnight and there needs to be a lot of work done beforehand. People need help now.
