Thanks will, charlatan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sun Tzu
Filtherton, I may have misunderstood but something isn’t adding up. Have you read your lease? Have you read your state laws pertaining to what you are experiencing?
|
I have consulted with a couple lawyers, and you might be surprised to know that having a lead-filled house and having landlords who fail to disclose this fact are not in and of themselves grounds for terminating a lease.
Quote:
|
Your third statement kind of contradicts your first two. Not only do you obviously not agree with libertarians, but from your assumption it sounds like you definitely do have a problem with them.
|
I stated quite plainly that I don't agree with the libertarian world view. That doesn't mean I have a problem with people who subscribe to it. I don't have a problem with my landlords because they're libertarians. In fact, I would prefer it if they were better at being libertarians, like as in holding up the "personal responsibility" aspect of being a libertarian.
Quote:
|
I don’t know the full scope of your story or the laws of where you are at, but as a landlord myself, I know there are laws set in place to protect both parties. Personally, even though I have had renters thrash my property far beyond what their deposit was, it has never stopped me from doing the right thing as far as customer service. I know that if my professional endeavors where shady and uncaring, I would eventually end up with empty houses. That would in turn eventually sink me. It’s pretty straightforward. If haven’t fulfilled my end of the agreement, then they have legal recourse. There is also thousands of other renter properties out there, not everyone is a slumlord.
|
Well, on lead specifically, there are laws in place at local, state, and national levels. The City of Minneapolis, being decidedly unlibertarian, has a whole lot of resources available for homeowners and landlords to help them refurbish and remediate lead problems.
And even though we could probably get out of the lease, if our landlords decided they didn't want us to, we would end up spending a lot of money and time going to court to force their hand.
Also, while I respect your opinion as a landlord, I don't think it necessarily reflects reality. At least not as I have seen it. Slumlords exist everywhere. They exist precisely because leases can be so tricky to get out of. And because moving is expensive and a pain in the ass. And because if you happen to be in a bad way, or lack resources, it is easy to find yourself stuck in a year long lease with someone who doesn't give a fuck about your well being and has no reason to.
The market is working to make this slumlord rich.
Quote:
|
I don’t understand why an atmosphere that makes people accountable and responsible about consequences they have created is deemed as evil.
|
Because it doesn't really make people accountable and responsible. Libertarianism and communism are very similar in that they both rely on hopelessly unrealistic notions of human behavior. There is nothing inherent in actual markets that can make everyone accountable and responsible. There will always be people who aspire to and succeed at gaming the system and getting things they don't haven't really earned, whether its welfare or windfalls (which is not at all to say that I don't think that welfare or profit are inherently bad things, sometimes people need things that they can't earn).
A rising tide can raise all the ships, but that might not matter so much if you're in a dinghy and a cruise ship happens to bowl you over.
Quote:
|
So what is your opinion of an ideal situation? Socialism? Communism? Or are you stating you don’t want to see the present market progress any further towards libertarian? In which case, do you really see that happening? While there are people with legitimate needs for aid, there are plenty of able people who will continue to live on hand outs that we all flip the bill for whose only disability is laziness. That doesn’t appear as if it is going to change, in fact- it looks like it about to get far worse. So fear not, the society of uncaring Ron Paul’s and the dragons that come with it is only a fairy tale, or nightmare in your case.
|
I want fewer people to suffer, I want basic human dignity for everyone, even if they've done everything imaginable to show that they don't deserve it (probably an exception or two in there), I want quality of life indexes that take into account things that aren't quantifiable with dollar signs. If I thought regressive notions of constitutional law would do the trick I'd be wearing a Ron Paul sticker right now. But I don't and I'm not.