this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
1589 points (97.4% liked)

A Boring Dystopia

10835 readers
2694 users here now

Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.

Rules (Subject to Change)

--Be a Decent Human Being

--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title

--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article

--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.

--Posts must have something to do with the topic

--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.

--No NSFW content

--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] DistressedDad@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I know people like this. They truly believe like they are doing society a favor by buying up houses and renting them out. The disconnect from reality is wild.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 3 hours ago

It's a little better than corporate real estate vultures though. If you think about it, these small landlords and renters are more alike than the people at Blackrock buying up all this shit.

[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

How does the second tenant pay their mortgage? One apartment's rent should not be enough to cover the mortgage of four (or five - including the one they live in). My guess is that they only payed all the mortgages for these four properties and this is about the mortgage of the apartment they live in.

The cheat code to a stress-free life is to own lots of real estate to being with.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

Oh, some rents are getting crazy and the buildings were purchased 10-20 years ago so the mortgage isn’t that high. It’s all a scam.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Of course they mean their own personal mortgage. The mortgage of the property they rent out is already covered by the tenant.

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago (2 children)
[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

How is it legal that people buy property and rent to those who want to rent instead of buy? My question to you is why wouldn't it be legal?

[–] Bagels@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

In principle it’s fine and it fulfills a market need… not everyone wants to buy. But in practice, under-regulation in a market where many people want to buy but can’t exacerbates wealth inequality by reducing the available housing and driving up home costs. This in turn drives up rental costs. It’s a nasty cycle.

[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Absolutely, a problem that is improved by increasing housing supply (thus lowering costs). We need more government investment in building homes and to remove barriers that prevent or slow homes from being built. Simply outlawing rentals, as OP suggests, would do the opposite, it would take out a huge chunk of people who are building homes, drastically lowering supply and exploding housing prices.

[–] rocket_dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

those who want to rent instead of buy?

Who actually wants to spend 1/3 of their paycheck on something every month and not own it?

[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Biggest plusses people argue in favor is not having to maintain the property yourself and being able to move much more easily. If you are one of the people who would prefer to buy, I highly recommend you do so. Maintaining your own stuff is quite nice, as it lets you keep it up to the quality you desire.

[–] rocket_dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Lmao this guy thinks landlords maintain the property.

Great, you can move more easily to another overpriced unmaintained property. You will own nothing and you will be happy about it.

[–] langsamerduck@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago

My exact thoughts. Never had anything in my apartments maintained by the landlord, always had to maintain everything myself at my own expense. And despite maintaining it for them, they still keep our deposits when we try to leave.

Keep our deposits, jack up rent despite doing nothing for us, and when they sell to a new landlord you have rich freaks coming into your home while you’re eating your lunch in your kitchen to stare at you and inspect the place to decide if they want to purchase you or not.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

In a word, corruption.

In two words, legal corruption.

In three words, blatant legal corruption.

In four words, United States political system.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 33 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Meh.

  1. This isn't an America problem. People do this in every country

  2. This is capitalism not corruption

For everyone here's a fun thought experience. You have a room with 100 people. In that room is 100$. 1 person (Elon Musk let's say) holds 95$. 4 people (let's say various CEO class people) hold $1 each. The remaining 95 people share the remaining 1$.

And yet here we are all fighting because some of our deluded asses think we are going to be one of those 5 people one day.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 hours ago

Meh.

  1. This isn't an America problem. People do this in every country

It's WORSE in the US than in most other countries, including all other wealthy countries, though. Differences in scale matter

  1. This is capitalism not corruption

Taken to the extremes it will inevitably reach if not sufficiently restrained, capitalism IS corruption with fancy packaging. It's right in the name: it's an ism (belief system) where accruing capital is the most important of ALL things.

In every Western country other than the US, accepting large sums of money and other perks from rich people who want favors is the DEFINITION of corruption, whether or not there's a specifically stated quid pro quo.

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It's the same here in the UK, unfortunately. Is that neoliberalism? Or just a rehashed kind of feudalism? I don't know, I'm mostly a gardener.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 hours ago

Yeah, it's pretty much a defining aspect of Neoliberalism. Just like turning the corruption up to 11 in both severity and blatancy is a hallmark of the economics of fascism.

load more comments
view more: next ›