Reason I’m asking is because I have an aunt that owns like maybe 3 - 5 (not sure the exact amount) small townhouses around the city (well, when I say “city” think of like the areas around a city where theres no tall buildings, but only small 2-3 stories single family homes in the neighborhood) and have these houses up for rent, and honestly, my aunt and her husband doesn’t seem like a terrible people. They still work a normal job, and have to pay taxes like everyone else have to. They still have their own debts to pay. I’m not sure exactly how, but my parents say they did a combination of saving up money and taking loans from banks to be able to buy these properties, fix them, then put them up for rent. They don’t overcharge, and usually charge slightly below the market to retain tenants, and fix things (or hire people to fix things) when their tenants request them.
I mean, they are just trying to survive in this capitalistic world. They wanna save up for retirement, and fund their kids to college, and leave something for their kids, so they have less of stress in life. I don’t see them as bad people. I mean, its not like they own multiple apartment buildings, or doing excessive wealth hoarding.
Do leftists mean people like my aunt too? Or are they an exception to the “landlords are bad” sentinment?
I think a lot of far leftists are relatively poor and would change their tune as soon as they earned a lot of money. When you experience success it becomes a lot harder to excuse or sympathize with the people asking for handouts. Success is difficult. Yes, a lot of luck is involved and successful people do tend to give themselves too much credit, but it still doesn’t happen without a lot of effort from one ambitious individual. When you know you’ve built an empire, it’s a tall order being asked to give it up.
Maybe.
My dad always told me when I was younger that when I grew up and had more money I’d be republican. Something along the lines of that saying that says young people who aren’t lefties have no hearts and older people who aren’t righties have no brains.
I wouldn’t say I have a LOT of money, but I’m a single digit percenter in my state. I’m happy to give and I often do. And I’m involved in the community and local politics to hopefully leave things better than I found them. I think you are right that many people might become unprincipled and change their tunes, but I also think there are many people in my shoes who want to help who get rage spit on by people who aren’t as fortunate. It is super dissonant to me.
Sure, don’t be a leech and profit off of the suffering of others. ALSO don’t be an ungrateful dickbag when I’m willing to offer you something I have, you need, and there’s no reason outside basic human decency I should give it to you.
All landlords are parasites? Fuck off, I’m gonna put my money where it is most likely to hang out until my kids need it or the country explodes. Then I’ll be happy to share around the remainder.
I grew up rich and inherited my wealth and I’m still a leftist, so I know there are exceptions to the rule I just gave. I didn’t mean to imply that all rich people are conservative and it’s a function of wealth. I just meant that while many leftists on Lemmy demand the rich empathize with the poor, I don’t think enough of them empathize with the rich—particularly the self-made rich.
You wanna know what the best thing about my inherited wealth is? I don’t have to plan for retirement. This leaves me free to work a job that doesn’t pay well, but affords me the opportunity to help people less fortunate than me (community therapist). I don’t think enough leftists on Lemmy realize how many of us are out there. It’s the problem of a handful of bad actors spoiling things for the bunch. It doesn’t matter how many Warren Buffets are out there; a single Jeff Bezos sets the bad example.
But it’s the system. We need laws that prevent 90% of the wealth falling into 10% of the hands. We need laws that stop the richest from paying the least taxes. But we also need oversight committees that stop government bodies meant to help the poor from pocketing the money—something leftists rarely want to acknowledge happens. I work in public health and I know how corrupt the system is. We can’t expect the we’ll-meaning wealthy to give up their capital to a system that is designed to line the pockets of other rich people.