this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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urbanism

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This was supposed to be c/traingang, so post as many train pictures as possible.

All about urbanism and transportation, including freight transportation.

Home of train gang

:arm-L::train-shining::arm-R:

Trainposts highly encouraged

Talk about supply chain issues here!

List of cool books and videos about urbanism, transit, and other cool things

Titles must be informative. Please do not title your post "lmao" or use the tired "_____ challenge" format.

Archive links for reactionary sites, including the BBC.

LANDLORDS COWER IN FEAR OF MAOTRAIN

"that train pic is too powerful lmao" - u/Cadende

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Is this the dream of every Westerner to own property that they can rent out? I hear a lot of this from Americans and Canadians about how they want to get into real estate.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It's not just a westerner thing, look at China before Mao's reforms. Look at parts of South Africa now. Feudal economic conditions lead to this kind of rent seeking behaviour being taken to the extreme. It's why Adam Smith hated landlords so much, the whole point of capitalism, to those that actually belive in it, is that's it's a progression from feudalism. So this kind of extreme rent seeking behaviour should not be a part of capitalism, according to what I refer to as utopian and idealistic capitalists. However, in actually existing capitalism, neo feudal economic conditions are recreated over time as the rate of profit falls. Which leads to this kind of behaviour and landlord worship.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The Chinese landlords pre Mao were more feudal lords than people renting out residential properties

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And the people renting out residential properties are becoming more and more feudal in their tactics as time passes. Like in this post about the guy subdividing his apartment in Poland, to take advantage of a refugee crisis with the war next door.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

no I mean Mao's landlords were actual literal feudal lords with peasants, manors, castles and everything

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just realized the depth of perversion it is to have women doing ballet to celebrate "China before communism" when those women would have probably had bound feet if not for communism and therefore been unable to perform ballet (or could only do so at extreme difficulty).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I mean, they're people who believe that they can fly

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

the falun gong are just mad they aren't allowed to sell fake medicine anymore

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So were the people Smith calls "landlords," (who were generally renting land for farming, not shelter, as they also did in China). His point stands, it's just a different type of rent extraction.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The Chinese landlords pre Mao were more feudal lords than people.

FTFY

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you really need feudal conditions for landlords to do this?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Feudal economic conditions lead to this kind of rent seeking behaviour being taken to the extreme

For reference, it was common in pre-Mao China for landlords to take 90% of the harvest from a peasant, who did the labor just to be able to get the remaining 10% because they owned no land on which to farm their own crops.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's interesting and outrageous but it doesn't answer my question at all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The answer is that feudal conditions aren't needed but that's not what the other person said.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

See you’re expecting western capitalists to actually read and comprehend Adam Smith instead of simply invoking his name like a saint.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago

Yes. I have a cousin who bought a place and is renting it out rather than living there because she can't actually afford the mortgage on her own salary. She's living with my aunt for free.

It's bad, folks. took-restraint

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some see it as a survival strategy for when they reach retirement age doomjak

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Jesus. You guys should live down here where the government can't reach us and we build our own houses with the community. Only downsides are very awful internet access and spotty electricity. That, and you need to grow and harvest your own food.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Tom Bombadil approved lifestyle

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That user lives... somewhere in the Mayasphere.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Maya territory? Nah, our local indigenous group hates them lol and pride themselves on living independently from them for centuries. But I guess we are in "Maya territory" with how much our government likes to prop them up for tourist money.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

it pretty much is the only option to retire. yea

at least you can reduce the moral dilemma of it by doing vacation rentals or something? in a spot where its obvious there needs to be vacation housing

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Is this the dream of every Westerner to own property that they can rent out?

That was 90% of the pull of Metaverse(tm) and NFT grifts, yeah.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The average person’s dream is to be able to exploit their neighbors. They won’t say it of course. But they’ll talk about wanting to own property to rent. When my family came here and was poor as hell, my dad considered buying two houses to rent the other.

Luckily my mom talked him out of it, but that’s because he was planning on doing all the maintenance work and answering calls lol. Wonder how it would’ve played out if they learned that you can be a lazy bum and outsource everything at your leisure and most people won’t be able to complain because housing would be scarce 10 years later.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Yep, I know a 22 year old who's current financial goals in life is looking for rental properties to buy within the next year in his cheap hometown so his parents can manage it

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

wild that's almost exactly my landlord

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Depressing news there are zoomers that are becoming landlords already

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

We failed to those children, and they are acting accordingly

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My cousin who is 18 plans on getting a house with friends so she can get her friends to pay the mortgage via rent

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Pay HER mortgage? That's incredibly deranged if so

Me and 4 of my friends at the beginning of uni considered buying a townhouse and then selling it after we graduate lol

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's capitalism confronted with finite resources, everyone just want to be a renter and reap what they don't sow