Why not outlaw landlordism?

[hunter]

206. That's a fairly traditional pattern.

Many duplexes were built explicitly for that purpose.

Hmmm... Maybe instead of "outlawing landlords" we ought to say owners have to live in the buildings they rent for some period of time.

My parents have rented out houses they've owned for various reasons, but never as an "investment." Mostly they break even or lose money. They are retired now, in the sense that they are full time artists. They live in a rain forest, drinking and bathing in water that falls on the roof of their rain forest home, but they rent out their California house. I've never visited their rain forest house. The air fare is beyond my current budget and I've got no sailboat.

As me and my siblings were growing up my parents were artists with day jobs. They've owned houses they've rented out for most of the time I've known them (Heh, more than half a century now!). I'm guessing it's a kind of security for them. Whenever their latest artistic/housing adventure doesn't quite work out they can retreat to where they came from. My parent's homes are always an intrinsic part of their artistic adventure. I don't think my parents could be happy in a place where they're not free to paint the walls whatever color they like, rip out the carpets, adopt difficult animals, or garden as they please. They always extend these same freedoms to tenants. Pay the rent, more or less on time, and don't burn the place down. Nobody sweats the small stuff. I have some funny stories about "small stuff" that many people posting in this thread would consider "BIG STUFF."

When I was a teen we moved to Europe. My parents rented out our home in the U.S.A.. Therefore we had a place to come back to after many adventures and misadventures. At our lowest point we were living as indigent U.S. Americans in a French public park, and the site of one of the worst public toilets in the entire universe. The people in town didn't know what to do with us and it was especially uncomfortable because none of us spoke French, so they eventually bought us ferry tickets to England.

Bon Voyage, weird American family!

My dad repaid the debt and more when we returned to the U.S.A. and him to good union employment. I'm quite sure that wasn't any worry about repayment in France. They'd ponied up to to get rid of us, forgotten it, and then, surprise, random dollars from America!

But in regards to the original post, I don't think landlords are the core issue with housing.

I do think everyone needs a place they can feel safe and secure, where they are free to paint the walls whatever color they like, even murals, grow whatever they like on the balcony or in the yard, and never ever have to worry about the carpet.

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