Landlords are parasites

How can people afford this? To meet the 3x gross income requirement you'd need an income of $14,995 * 12 * 3 = $539,820. At that point you might as well just buy a house instead of renting.

The Palisades (where the largest fire is burning right now) house some of the wealthiest people in the country that just lost homes worth over $3 million on average. It’s scummy (maybe illegal?) to jack the prices up and these people are also rich enough to pay it, for the most part.
The other fires going on are a different story, but the address is near the Palisades without being in the danger zone.
- Yet
- Capitalism eating itself, rich people now homeless and can't afford new homes
I think it’s marketed to people who had a home and lost it.
Because this isn't for individuals. Corporations rent houses like this. Movie studios, music labels, executive perks for the c suite, and more recently YouTube streamer companies. When you have clients that need to travel a lot it's offered as a perk for them to "live" in one of these fancy houses. Executives who only stay with companies for a few years are easier to recruit if they don't have to hassle with buying or selling a home during a relocation. Or in the modern times YouTubers who need to a fancy house to stream from for content.
Rental costs are expenses, owning is a taxable asset.
That assumes someone will give you a mortgage and that you have multiple thousands of dollars saved up for closing costs, which unfortunately is the reason people are forced to look for rentals and are greeted with...that.
- That's true for a lot of folks, but if you can manage 15k/month rent, then you absolutely have financial options and easily get savings.
California is super expensive because everyone makes a lot of money compared to other state medians.
- Yeah everyone does. That's why there are no homeless people in California.

In a capitalist society, raising prices on victims due to supply and demand is rational behavior.

The problem here is less with the landlord and more with the system we live in. It motivates everyone to have antisocial behavior.

Did you really just say don't hate the player hate the game
- I have room in my heart to hate both
- We can enjoy hating the player, but hating the game allows for change.
- Sartre seems to agree, kind of: "I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary."
- Yes, we don't have enough information to hate the player yet.
I agree that the system we live in is partially responsible, but it has never motivated me to be a piece of shit. People are still responsible for their actions.
- We don't know what situation the landlord is in. Maybe they are also turbo fucked. The human instinct to survive is strong.
Completely agree.
The landlord is a piece of shit.
The system that drives people to act like pieces of shit is a bigger piece of shit.
And I definitely think the landlord can both be acting rationally and be a piece of shit. I also don't place all the blame on the landlord, and even though anyone with a 10k plus apartment for rent has WAY more money than me they and I are likely in basically the same boat when compared to the actual capitalist class.

I can't help but think from a scientific perspective that when a population is forced to fight for resources, aggression in that population also increases.

In the most basic terms, how would you expect a colony of mice to react in a scenario like this? A dwindling supply of food, along with a shrinking supply of shelter... I'd expect to see a steady increase in violence over time.

I can't see this ending well, and I certainly have felt a steady degradation of hospitality and compassion in the last decade or so.

Is there even a way to combat this? I feel like the cultural zeitgeist has been so polluted with individualism it's almost impossible to get the general public to agree to policies that don't directly benefit themselves.

Just build more houses and more multi-use buildings. Proper planning can solve this.
- Don't we also need some regulation that prevents landlords from buying any new housing capacity that is created?
- Of course, that's one aspect of it, my comment isn't about policy. I'm sure we both agree on what needs to happen in terms of policy.
  I'm just pointing out that there doesn't really seem to be enough support for such plans or policies.
- shout out to !fuckcars@lemmy.world
- Building denser to limit sprawl also greatly helps fire resiliency in fire prone areas. Sprawl greatly increases the perimeter that must be defended
I can’t see this ending well, and I certainly have felt a steady degradation of hospitality and compassion in the last decade or so.
After the Reddit API fiasco, but before I made this account, I spent a year avoiding all social media. Since coming back, things aren't the same. There seems to be a lot more hostility, with a lot less reading comprehension, turning into feedback loops of inane and pointless arguing. It's hard to hold an enjoyable discussion on a forum (like the way it used to be) when all it takes to start a fight is something as normal and human as being unable to find the exact right word for something.
It's not only Lemmy. Spend enough time reading comment threads almost anywhere online these days, and you can practically feel the undercurrent of tension. To the best I can tell, people are stressed, people are scared, and people are looking for any excuse to lash out. Any minor confusion, brain fart, or mistranslation is now an excuse for someone to break out their pitchfork. It doesn't even take a mistake either - even calm, well thought-out, carefully worded comments aren't immune. It almost feels like landmines have been planted across social media, and it's concerning.

It’s Luigi time

Wahoo

I thought for a second this was the price to buy, that's how fucked the market is.

I live in a high cost of living area and still can't wrap my head around even the original price. That's nearly my ~~yearly~~ entire salary. What the fuck.
Edit: I meant nearly the entirety of my monthly income per month, so a year of rent would cost about everything I make annually. Before tax.
- You don't.
T=HIS IS RENT!?!?!?!
- For a year, right?

If anyone has access to a genie wish, might I suggest:

"I wish any rental that saw the rent on it raised by more than twice the inflation rate, once it is no longer occupied, would instantly burst into flames and burn to ashes in a way that damages no other rental unit."

Granted, landlords insurance pays for a new building and lost rent. Now renting it for even more money.
- Maybe for the first few, but after awhile it would be common knowledge that raising rents too much magically causes building to burst into flames. Insurance doesn't cover intentional acts. If you deliberately burn your own house down, insurance isn't going to cover that. Plus every insurance policy would exclude coverage for this sort of entirely predictable and preventable fire.
- Except when it keeps burning down due to the ongoing wish and is no longer insurance.
I wish it was illegal for a single entity or organization to own more than three residential buildings at one time

Wow I'm quite surprised the fires haven't affected that unit in particular

Sometimes fires like this flare up much later and in the weirdest places. Hopefully when noone is home.
- Sometimes landlords spontaneously combust. Isn’t that neat?
- too bad fires spread uncontrollably
Someone should fix that

This is America! It's not a horrific tragedy with lives lost, many others seriously injured or afflicted with new long-term health problems, their most precious possessions reduced to ash, countless people being made homeless with absolutely no options for places to go... it's an opportunity!

It seems to me the only way to win at capitalism is to lose all sense of compassion and empathy. When a population turns from cooperation to wholly exploiting each other it can only lead to a breakdown of society - which is something I fear we'll witness in the next four years.

How much you bet once those homes are rebuilt, it'll stay like this?

This is bad but it’s rich people fighting rich people - kind of as it should be.

You're fucking cuckoo if you don't think this is illustrative of a larger action that has/will also "trickle down" to the renters in studio apartments - "I came here to exploit human tragedy for profit and chew bubble gum... and I can't chew bubble gum with this mouth full of caviar" -landlords in LA right now

To be fair, if they're renting to the people with movie star-level money, then I'm not sure I can blame them.

I'd have a sliding scale based on imdb credits.

Maybe the fire needs to spread to some areas.

Supply and demand, unfortunately.

Surely, the difference will be donated to a fire victims fund. In this way, landlord steals from the rich to redistribute to the poor.