We’ve increased the available supply of drinking water overall.
And then you charge up the wazoo for a basic human right.
On the other hand when you live in a city where there is a limited supply of housing and you buy that up and rent it back to people at a profit so that you don’t have to work, you are simply draining the system of resources.
Ah. It would appear you believe that somehow buying a property and renting it out does not require financial risk and effort like any other product or service. Renting out housing, despite frequent appearances, requires maintenance and expenses in order to reap a profit. What you are describing would more accurately describe investments in stocks or bonds which do not require anything but capital on your part.
" economists literally use the term ‘rent-seeking’ to describe behaviour"
Except those same economists argue that renting out housing is productive. And that's not in fact the origin of the term. The classic example, according to the wikipedia is charging money for boats to pass a section of river. The term does not refer to housing, which requires a reciprocal exchange - you build or buy the house and maintain it and in exchange you are paid for it's use.
To repeat because I have to: I'm not arguing this is good. I'm arguing that a distinction between types of capital investment cannot be made. You can say landlords are universally bad but other types of capitalists are good, universally or otherwise. It's the same damned thing.
Edit: I sometimes wonder if people think houses are like rivers because they haven't owned one. They are a huge pain in the ass and require a lot of expense and effort.
Note that I am playing devil's advocate here in order to tease out some of the nuances in people's thinking because I believe it's important for us all to understand the details and I'm not convinced many have thought it through. Hence the knee-jerk reaction to downvote
They are buying up a limited supply of properties that exist in desirable areas and then charging people for the right to use them plus a nice profit for themselves. This reduces the supply for a necessary good and drives up prices...
This describes any financial transaction in a capitalist system.
but you can also just be putting money into a business so that it has more money to grow its operations
And how is this different from buying a product like a house and renting it out? Would any such distinction apply to, say, renting out a car or renting out your services? And "renting" a product isn't really different from services or a cycle of buying low and selling high for anything other than the terms of the contract.
or you can invest it in a business that lets them use those resources now and lets you get your retirement money back 30 years from now when you need it
So like investing in real estate. For years that was considered kind of the gold standard of "safe" investments and generally providing a net annual return of about 5%.
That’s how investment can be a net benefit to society
I'm not convinced any investment can be a "net benefit" to society in a capitalist system. But proponents of renting out property argue it provides a "net benefit" by providing a needed service (housing) to those that aren't themselves in a position to buy. It is inherently usurious, just like everything capitalist.
So for me, bottom-line, the only valid argument to support making a distinction between real estate "investment" and other kinds of "investment" is to say that housing is a basic human right. And if you are going to go there, why not make other things human rights like happiness, a life free from financial stress, a life of fulfillment. From my perspective that leads to the inescapable conclusion that capitalism is inherently inhumane and thus any kind of investing is immoral.
Ok, so do you have a 401k? Any kind of retirement savings? A bank account that earns interest?
If so, how is that different, or at least acceptable for you than any investment?
You might think I'm trying to be sneaky here or trap you in some way. I'm genuinely not - just trying to understand your perspective and thinking about how folks such as yourself might choose to function given our inability to effect wholesale change in our capitalist system.
Edit: For you downvoting sheep out there, see my comment above for context on why I ask these questions.
Yes, landlords are responsible for the demand for housing outstripping supply.
I'm curious how that makes sense to you. In theory and practice landlords want to landlord and thus rent out their property, not withhold it from the market.
I am willing to bet with actual genuine monopoly money that 95% of the people here who are complaining about landlords will be totally on board with landlording once, later in life, they are in a position to do so.
Without landlords, we’d not have a housing crisis.
Maybe. Or maybe it's not so simple. Because:
There would be enough housing for everyone, we have plenty of resources and land to build them.
But would they be built? I'm in no way saying this is "right" but for them to be built builders have to know they are going to make a profit. The smaller that profit the more pressure to build fewer. Now maybe we get lucky and all this downward pressure on prices balances out. But I'd guess that far far fewer homes would be built and so the question ends up being is it still enough? Some say there are plenty of houses already and it would be, but that assumes those who paid the inflated prices are willing to accept less money now.
This is a genuine question: what's the difference do you think between investments in general and real estate investments? I mean, technically investing of any kind is hoarding. It may not have such direct impact on basic needs, but it surely does overall.
I have several friends who could not possibly afford to own a home without renting out a room. I was in that situation myself for many years, having barely scraped together enough to buy the property for my farm. I mean without renting out a room I wouldn't have been able to eat, much less pay the mortgage.
But nope, apparently this makes us parasites judging from all the comments here, like this one:
"If you make a profit for allowing another person shelter (particularly if you don’t need that space for yourself and/or your own family), then you are a parasite."
Obviously there is some ambiguity around the word "profit" in this context. Owning land or a house is almost always "profit" but that "profit" isn't usually realizable except over very long time scales.
All of my best hires for SE and related positions have been drop outs or self-taught folks. Sometimes there were minor gaps in knowledge of some of the fundamentals, leading to some wheel-inventing but on balance they were far more capable than the average Comp Sci graduate.
The worst hires, almost without exception, were those with graduate degrees. All hat no cattle.
What's so funny about people like you is the fact that on the one hand you complain about Nader and Stein and then on the other say we need "help forming political groups". As in third parties? As in potential spoiler candidates?
Are the tankies in the room with you now?