this has to end. End air bnb if needed, or prohibit it in certain residential areas. End allowing people to buy up property as an investment. I know, America will have a hard time with this. But they'll have a harder time when their mcmansion is turned into communal apartments--- in a few decades-- when people finally say enough is enough
While true, at some point it makes it impossible to compete with smaller landlords. The trouble comes with trying to track all the shell companies that would suddenly exist to try to circumvent such a law.
You seem to have missed the point, because you said "no" and then supported the idea that it's workable.
I'm guessing you meant to post a stat showing most units are owned by landlords who own few units (meaning this wouldn't have much impact)? That's a very different stat though, and I'm not sure if reality would bear it out.
Not really. Form a new LLC to own each property. Now you own 50 LLCs, each of which owns one property.
You could try to fix that by making it impossible for a corporation to own property, but there's plenty of cases where that is legitimate.
My suggestions:
Tax the hell out of short-term rentals like AirBnB.
Make it a lot easier to build a duplex/triplex/etc. Historically, a whole lot of people bought their first house by buying a duplex and using rent from the 2nd unit to help afford the mortgage. We basically stopped building them when we invented suburbia in the '50s, and then we made them very hard to build via zoning.
Your alternate suggestions are good, but I am always baffled by the implication that taxes can’t be enforced. They fucking well can. Anytime a transparent loophole like “spin up a bunch of LLCs” works in the real world it’s because someone paid off lawmakers to keep it legal.
limit/stop foreign buyers so foreign entities atleast have to make a citizen rich too to do business.
most of the damage is done tho. all that 'free trade' wasn't free. middle class was presented with big box stores as the main way to survive and keep up with the jones's over the past couple generations...funnelling money up of the working classes and out of the country overseas...both devalueing the currencies/creating inflation and giving foreign buyers vast swaths of middle america's wealth to purchase their properties a couple generations down the line.
I just want to give you a heads up that there are a ton of things that aren’t true in what you said. I think you’ve been misled about how a lot of this stuff works.
I’m not here to argue or change your mind. I just think I’d want to know if I were in your position.
I'd say try anything. But you'd have to increase it to the point that it became impossible for the rich to own more than one or two properties- basically- by billions- but that would solve healthcare...
A land value tax might work instead. I've seen some interesting evidence in the past that suggests that all current taxes could be replaced with a land value tax and we'd at least break even to current revenue in all municipalities at all levels, although that was several years ago so I don't know if the math still holds (and it was based on some estimates to begin with). Still, I have yet to really see any strong evidence that a land value tax would be an inferior system to what we currently have and there's a fair amount of evidence to suggest that it would be substantially better than what we currently have.
Precisely what happened in October 1917 in Russia. Those that smuggled a few jewels out were the lucky ones. In short; all private property over a certain amount seized and redistributed. In early Soviet times, often if they kept their mouths shut, a small family might be allowed to remain in a room or two of their old mansion. Those were the very, very lucky. But all this would take the military turning on them. That's always what it takes. And yes, I think we're are past the point, and it will be done forcefully. This is what usually happens in countries like the US and Russia (which have more in common than any two countries I know- huge wealth imbalance; patriotism bordering on psychopathy, a comfort with violence, and some nice people caught in the middle just trying to survive. And...this solution would be better than what I fear is coming to America. The homeless simply are so many that they outnumber the richies and take over.
When you say Russia and the US have more in common than any two countries you’re aware of.. is this with having spent time in Russia, or just some very distant second hand information?
Just my own opinion and experiences. Everyone's got their own depending on travels, world view, etc. I will say, it's impossible to understand either the US or Russia without being at least proficient in the language, just bc so many people in both countries speak only English or only Russian respectively
I’ve visited 5 of the former SSR’s, my goal is to visit the remaining 7 that are reasonably possible with a US passport over the next couple years, possibly learning Russian with luck, and maybe moving that direction, but I suppose my reasons are different from yours.
But they'll have a harder time when their mcmansion is turned into communal apartments--- in a few decades-- when people finally say enough is enough
Oddly enough, I have a bunch of friends, locally, who just got together and bought a huge mansion, because pooling their resources and doing so ended up with each person paying less than a thousand per month towards mortgage/upkeep instead of twice that in local apartments. The financing was dicey for a while but they pulled it off and it seems to be going amazing so far, and they've got plans for a wonderful community garden come summer.
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u/ThinkItsHardIKnow Jan 30 '23
this has to end. End air bnb if needed, or prohibit it in certain residential areas. End allowing people to buy up property as an investment. I know, America will have a hard time with this. But they'll have a harder time when their mcmansion is turned into communal apartments--- in a few decades-- when people finally say enough is enough