this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
565 points (94.3% liked)

Asklemmy

44152 readers
1402 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Most of the time when people say they have an unpopular opinion, it turns out it's actually pretty popular.

Do you have some that's really unpopular and most likely will get you downvoted?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Houses and similar private property should be owned by the state and be given out to those in need for free, rather than owned by private individuals to sell/rent and make a profit. It's literally a basic human need that's becoming less and less accessible due to greed (constantly rising prices and scams landlords might try to pull), and it's very easy to just lose one if you're unfortunate enough to be unemployed for a longer period of time.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The problem with this idea is, what if the state is controlled by unsavoury people? I know that is kind of a hard thing to imagine, but just humour me and assume it's possible.

It gives far too much power to too few people.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If the state is controlled by unsavory people, then you probably have bigger issues at hand than them controlling the housing.

If the government is extremely authoritarian where being a political dissident puts you at risk of persecution, then you wouldn't be able to stay at your home regardless. If the government is extremely corrupt and hand out the best apartments to their inner circle while leaving everything else to others, then it would still be an improvement to the current system, at least in my eyes.

Point is, there are far more effective ways to mess with people you don't like if you're a state controlled by unsavory people. That being said, a country has an interest in having a population as without it, there's no country, no production of food and other things - going full evil and just committing genocide or mass homelessness would not make any sense.

Meanwhile, the interest of private land/property owners who hoard/acquire land/property with the intent to either rent or sell is to make as much money as possible, they don't particularly care if it gives someone in need a roof over the head as long as they're making money.

Also, with the housing crises around the whole world, the amount of vacant houses that would alleviate or outright solve those crises, and many types of fraud going around the world when it comes to building new housing, it's safe to say that the current housing system is controlled by unsavory individuals. In the real world, not in a hypothetical scenario.

Apologies for the long reply.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If the state is controlled by unsavory people, then you probably have bigger issues at hand than them controlling the housing.

Well then, it already is, so we already do.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

It doesn't need to be an authoritarian government or an evil government as such.

It would just need to be a govermt that doesn't prioritize fairness and egalitarianism above all.

If the people dishing out the housing have biases and they're not favourable to you, you're stuck.

At least in the existing system you have the ability to progress and determine your quality of living to some degree.

I don't think our current system is good by the way. I just don't think state owned housing is the right medicine. Not unless we can find a way to instate benevolent dictators.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They did that in the Soviet Union. The government stuffed people into ugly, tiny apartments, with multiple families per apartment. I once talked to a guy whose single mom was forced to live with a violent drunk in one of those apartments. Sounds awful.