I’m someone who believes landlording (and investing in property outside of just the one you live in) is immoral, because it makes it harder for other people to afford a home, and takes what should be a human right, and turns it into an investment.
At the same time, It’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever be able to own a home without investing my money.
And just investing in stocks means I won’t have a diversified portfolio that could resist a financial crash as much as real estate can.
If I were to invest fractionally in real estate, say, through REITs, would it not be as immoral as landlording if I were to later sell all my shares of the REIT in order to buy my own home?
I personally think investing in general is usually immoral to some degree, since it relies on the exploitation of other’s labour, but at the same time, it feels more like I’m buying back my own lost labour value, rather than solely exploiting others.
I’m curious how any of you might see this as it applies to real estate, so feel free to discuss :)
And how crushing would it be if you have no food, no money, no job, and not even a safe place that you’re just allowed to exist for want of $200?
Also the taxes in my area, which isn’t even a particularly expensive area for the US are something like 10x that.
Well debate about wether taxes are good or not are a whole another discussion. I live in a wellfare state myself so I don’t mind the relatively high taxes I’m paying because I’ve benefited from what the government spends it on my whole life and continue to benefit in the future as well, not to even mention the people less fortunate than me.
If you’re broke, disabled and unable to provide for yourself the government will provide you with an apartment and money for food. 200€ a year is pennies compared to the benefits people like this are receiving.
But if it weren’t for property taxes, the government wouldn’t need to provide me a place to live as a homeowner, every penny of welfare I would need could go to food, utilities, etc. and that frees up the government provided housing for those who don’t already have a place to live.
And again, I’m not anti tax, just anti property tax, raise the sales taxes, income taxes, etc. to cover things, especially on the wealthy, my house isn’t making me any money until I sell it, so why should I be taxed on it like it is?