09-27-2020, 08:51 AM
Much of the divide between Trump supporters and Trump haters is between homeowners and renters. Trump is above all else a landlord, and to a tenant a landlord is a money drain more than anything else. The biggest expenditure of most people is a landlord, and a landlord can take over half of someone's disposable income if one lives in certain places.
To be sure, much of what people consider rent is taxes and insurance that one would pay if one were a homeowner, so that is some wash... but the landlord is typically the definitive rent-seeker that one cannot escape except, in many cases, going where opportunities are few. It is obviously far easier to own a house in rural Tennessee on the wages of a garage mechanic than to own a house as a software programmer in Silicon Valley or a copywriter in New York City.
I have never heard anyone speak well of landlords as capitalists. They are not innovators except in gouging and in political shenanigans. They are arguably the most reactionary of capitalists. They are in no way job-creators as high-tech pioneers were in the golden days of the Tech Boom. They need little sophistication in business; it is all marketing, and their marketing is simply to find how to find the customer most willing to pay the highest rent.
The easiest way to get fantastically rich in Silicon Valley is not to be a software engineer; it is to be a landlord to a captive base of consumers known as software engineers. My brother is practically a refugee from California housing...
Most people accept capitalism if it shows evidence of competition to better serve customers. Antipathy toward Big Oil seems to correspond with fuel prices that more reflect market conditions than anything else. One has a clear choice to avoid a grocer with poor selection or that charges too much. (Most people know that grocery shopping is a question of buying in quantity or getting convenience.
To be sure, much of what people consider rent is taxes and insurance that one would pay if one were a homeowner, so that is some wash... but the landlord is typically the definitive rent-seeker that one cannot escape except, in many cases, going where opportunities are few. It is obviously far easier to own a house in rural Tennessee on the wages of a garage mechanic than to own a house as a software programmer in Silicon Valley or a copywriter in New York City.
I have never heard anyone speak well of landlords as capitalists. They are not innovators except in gouging and in political shenanigans. They are arguably the most reactionary of capitalists. They are in no way job-creators as high-tech pioneers were in the golden days of the Tech Boom. They need little sophistication in business; it is all marketing, and their marketing is simply to find how to find the customer most willing to pay the highest rent.
The easiest way to get fantastically rich in Silicon Valley is not to be a software engineer; it is to be a landlord to a captive base of consumers known as software engineers. My brother is practically a refugee from California housing...
Most people accept capitalism if it shows evidence of competition to better serve customers. Antipathy toward Big Oil seems to correspond with fuel prices that more reflect market conditions than anything else. One has a clear choice to avoid a grocer with poor selection or that charges too much. (Most people know that grocery shopping is a question of buying in quantity or getting convenience.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.