#350

People love fucking around with syntax to make themselves feel clever. Embarrassing really quite.

#351

Oh no, everything Jim paints is going to come true.

#352

Scalia was such a piece of shit, no wonder Trump loves him.

#353

Dunno where else to put this, but

Think thereā€™s going to be unrest unlike anything previously seen over the next few months. Millions of people laid off by corona are simply going to get booted out into the street with no recourse. I know olā€™ Donny has wriggled out of many a jam before, but I really donā€™t think heā€™s going to get re-elected with this on in the background (not that the Dems have any answers to it).

#354

putting yourself in their mindset for a minute - assume you think they deserve their rent money and arrears, the thing I keep coming back to is who do all the landlords and judges think theyā€™re now going to be able to rent to? who is going to pay that to them?

What is their actual thinking of what is going to happen next to right this heinous wrong?

2 Likes
#355

Most likely they think they can hold out until the economy picks up and they can get fresh renters. Theyā€™ve never been in a situation where they couldnā€™t kick a family out and find a new renter fairly quickly, the system isnā€™t programmed for a crisis like this.

#356

Think youā€™re right in that this could be a tipping point. The biggest culture shock every time Iā€™ve been to America has always been the absolutely appalling level of street homelessness. Feels like a lot of Americans have ignored it up to now because they just didnā€™t believe it can happen to them.

2 Likes
#357

Closer to home, Iā€™m literally watching this happen with my dadā€™s business. He runs a cafe, which makes all its money from food. It was closed for months, then reopened for takeaway coffee - at its best, itā€™s doing about 10% if itā€™s normal turnover (which only just broke even anyway). He got the landlords to take a reduced rent for a couple of months, but now they want the whole lot. My dad has explained this is all but impossible and offered different terms, which theyā€™ve come back and rubbished. Itā€™s some bunch of yuppies who inherited the building from their parents and all they know is taking a tidy wodge of cash each month - and they told my dad you couldnā€™t pitch a burger van on the high street for what heā€™s offered them. Have they looked outside? Even before the pandemic there were empty units on the high street, while half the rest is charity shops. They couldnā€™t get a burger van if they tried. Theyā€™re going to kill a long term tenant for no reason, because they canā€™t fathom the impudence of them not being able to make rent. Will they be happier when itā€™s empty? I guess, maybe just out of spite.

8 Likes
#358

The landlord class seemingly have no concept of the relationship between work-earnings-wages. Itā€™s disgusting. This is the other side of the dislocation between work value and capital that Marx discussed, which is that not only do workers become isolated from the value of their efforts, but those demanding payment from them are isolated from economic reality. Itā€™s hideous, and what theyā€™re doing to your dad and thousands of others should be a crime.

15 Likes
#359

This is absolutely nuts, they are acting in their own worst interests, can only be because they have absolutely no need of the money. Itā€™s evident they donā€™t give a shit about the actual people. I work for a local regeneration charity and we have various small business tenants. We are doing absolutely everything we can to keep them in business, not just for the moral good but also because it will be nigh on impossible to replace them.

Meanwhile our income streams have been badly affected and our landlord, the Duke of Norfolk, has offeredā€¦ well, Iā€™ll leave it to your imagination.

3 Likes
#360

Iā€™m wonderingā€¦ is there some kind of benefit to leaving a building vacant? Iā€™m sure Iā€™ve heard of tax breaks etc in America for doing that? We lived in a three flat for a bit and our flat was the only one rented. There was a reason the landlord was keeping the other two vacant, but I canā€™t remember the specifics. He might just have been a lazy prick, which he was, as they all tend to be.

#361

None that Iā€™m aware of in the UK, but Iā€™d hardly claim to be an expert. You get three months rates relief when it first becomes empty, after that you have to pay them so itā€™s in your interest to have a tenant, but there are doubtless schemes and strategies and tax breaks for the enterprising dick to make use of if you are that way inclined.

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#362

Itā€™s not that we ignore homelessness, we actively demonize it. The homelessness crisis to a lot of Americans is that they have to look at homeless people (ā€œfor the amount of taxes I pay I shouldnā€™t have to see tents, theyā€™re going to lower my property valueā€). Itā€™s disgusting.

My town has a little food pantry set up for people who are struggling, and last year there was a massive outrage on the townā€™s facebook group because someone saw a homeless person take something from it. Someone actually wrote, ā€œthe pantry is meant for less fortunate members of this community, not for homeless peopleā€ without any irony whatsoever. It turned into people ranting about how the homeless have it easier than homeowners, and people were calling for it to be removed ā€œbecause it encourages being homeless.ā€ Itā€™s a 3 foot by 2 foot box filled with expired pasta and soup.

But yeah, they definitely donā€™t believe it can happen to them - theyā€™re hard working Americans! It goes without saying that these people are one medical emergency or ill-timed layoff away from being homeless themselves. Things are going to get really bad here.

3 Likes
#363

I donā€™t think itā€™s that different in the UK tbh. Like the particular spectre of medical debt isnā€™t a thing, and we probably have more in the way of job protections (for the time being), but obviously plenty of people are unfortunate enough to end up sleeping rough and there are plenty of systemic issues that lead to that, and plenty of terrible attitudes from the general public about it.

4 Likes
#364

There are now nine empty apartments on my block alone. Itā€™s usually really rare to see any vacancies as usually someone has a desperate friend to move in right away. I can think of at least three people who have moved back home since this started and I donā€™t really have that many friends. Itā€™s looking like being a total disaster.

Iā€™ve been reading a lot of Seattle news before we move. Seems itā€™s even worse there as the rents are even higher.

#365

Shredders to maximum power.

#366

Iā€™d like to see him wriggle his way etc etc

12 Likes
#367
1 Like
#368
#369

ā€˜they were very surprisedā€™

3 Likes