Not The Advice Of People Who Work Hard And Build Businesses
Horrible. From an Adam Gabbatt piece in The Guardian: "Activists in New York, Pennsylvania & California are encouraging tenants to withhold rent, whether they are able to pay or not, to draw attention to the plight of those unable to pay."
My landlord's mortgage probably doesn't say "payable by check, online transfer, or tenant publicity stunt."
My landlord came here from overseas, worked construction, and bought houses in Venice when they were cheap. He's now wealthy, and I think that's great. I respect and admire him.
He deserves his rent check. If the money cupboard is bare, obviously, people aren't going to be able to pay rent. I'm going through some tough times with papers going out of business. However, I am working my ass off to try to keep my head above water -- applying for grants t fund the book I'm completing, trying to figure out new ways to make money (legal ones!), etc.
From Gabbatt's piece:
More than 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past six weeks, as the coronavirus has caused widespread business closures.The New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is among those voicing support for the strikes, which are being coordinated by an array of housing groups.
"People aren't striking because they don't feel like paying rent, they're striking because they can't," Ocasio-Cortez said.
But that's NOT what the activists are saying.
If you can pay rent, you owe it to your landlord to do that.
You signed a lease, a contract, and that has to mean something -- and keep meaning something.
Ted Rall is , is urging the same thing with yet more unfavorable comparisons of the US to murderous tyrannies.
You might remember Rall as the cartoonist who compared George W. Bush unfavorably to Hitler and bin Laden
Conan the Grammarian at May 2, 2020 6:04 AM
By the way, Ted, Hitler was never elected chancellor. He was appointed to the office in that curiously undemocratic process parliamentary democracies have established for use when voters are unable to decide between a collection of political parties that outnumbers the country's varieties of cheese.
As for winning most of his military campaigns, he lost the ones that counted - Stalingrad, Moscow, Leningrad, the Bulge, etc. What's more, unlike the British who have had a historical propensity for losing the battles and winning the wars, Hitler lost the war. Germany lie in ruins afterward, half of it enslaved to a foreign dictatorship.
Conan the Grammarian at May 2, 2020 6:14 AM
I've been seeing a lot of comments about landlords being evil and shouldn't exist. I had no idea landlords were so universally hated.
The ironic thing is so many are working class.
NicoleK at May 2, 2020 8:08 AM
If these assholes are advocating stealing accommodation, why not steal other things.
How is this different than stealing food? Aren't Safeway and Whole Foods evil corporations, too?
Need some new clothes, a car, a set of golf clubs. Why not just take them without paying to "draw attention to the plight of those unable to pay" for a decent car.
Steamer at May 2, 2020 9:04 AM
So should landlords go on strike and stop paying their mortgages? Banks are evil corporations, right? And then can all property owners go on strike and stop paying property taxes?
Fink-Nottle at May 2, 2020 9:24 AM
" Banks are evil corporations, right?"
Well, Obama likes them a lot, so yeah.
"...stop paying property taxes"
If it dismantles the lopsided educational system in this country, I say go for it.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 2, 2020 1:01 PM
Interesting how we don't see politicians advocating that businesses shut down by government decree stop paying (or get a refund on) their business licenses.
Also, we don't see local governments offering a break on property taxes to landlords or others.
Both of these, property taxes and business licenses, are certainly within the local governments' power to do something about - even if it give a free pass on one calendar quarter.
charles at May 3, 2020 9:19 AM
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