Dems introduce Bill to ban hedge funds from owning single family houses

You cant really expect private home builders to pay market prices for land, labor, construction materials, financing and permitting and then rent or sell homes for below market prices and risk losing their ass with their name on a loan guarantee.

And if we learned anything in 2008, it’s that not everybody should own a home.

 

Sorry man, this just doesn’t make any sense. If more housing is built, it will ultimately lead to more affordable housing either through home ownership or rentals.

Capitalism isn’t perfect but we’ve yet to find a better alternative. Jobs going overseas lead to lower prices here, and a big rise in standard of living and lowering of poverty around the world. Yes, in some respects the middle class here was negatively affected.

There are ways such as taxation and regulation to offset the negative impacts without throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Capitalism isn’t perfect but I wouldn’t say deeply flawed. The path to where we were 50-70 years ago vs now is very complex with lots of accomplishments and lots of new problems. To isolate capitalism as the primary cause is short sighted.

Millions of immigrants trying to get into the US would disagree with your American dream assessment.

 

It is not capitalism's job to provide everyone with housing that must meet government's ever expanding regs. Sounds like a failure of government. 32T in dept & people living under bridges. 11 aircraft carriers & people living under bridges. Blaming the wealth creators rather than the wealth squanderers seems - at best - misplaced.

 

Totally agree. Isn’t the law proposed in the OP an example of such regulation?

 

I completely agree with you on wasteful government spending. Especially military spending. Not sure what that has to do with economic regulations to protect actual people from corporations/hedge funds.

 

been a landlord in 3 diff places.* So much reg raises prices on the people & limits the supply for the people. Just like gov can engage in wasteful spending, they can enact regs that hurt those they intended to help.

* U City, Missouri. the gov just bends the people over..ain't got nothing to do with capitalism.

If you're gonna take the position that gov can do no harm, we've nothing to discuss.

 

Well you’re in luck because I’m certainly not taking that position. I’m just saying some degree of regulation is necessary or this will end like the French Revolution. Do you have any concern whatsoever about the existing and growing wealth disparity in this country? What, if anything, should the government do to slow it?

 

IMO, regulation did a hell of a lot to CAUSE this problem. I've seen it. My FIL has seen it. My buddy in Jax who bends over backward to help the downtrodden has seen it. 'member rent controls? how'd that work out for the poor folk? Reagan's car quotas? How'd that work out for the common man? Trump's steel tariffs? How'd that help those on the bottom rung?

 

How so? How will regulation have led to corporations owning upwards of 40% of residential properties by 2030?

 

1 way is making it horrible to be a landlord. Regs are very favorable to "tenets" which includes squatters etc. My bud in Jax has horror stories of 0 rent, bathtubs of shit & no remaining windows. My horrific experience in Missouri got me out. Gov reg has made it very hard, if not, prohibitive for small time landlords. Hedge funds can afford legal depts. In a nutshell, gov regs have made landlording far more attractive to corps than to the little guy. Gov reg has created a mkt where economies of scale (i.e. legal depts, lobbyists, acct depts, etc.) give the BIG GUYS a competitive advantage.

 

And that’s no surprise. They are paying good money for those laws.

 

so, why not address that? C'mon. How many lessons in the horrors of prohibition do you need? I bet you'd've been for rent controls...maybe you still are.

 

I’d just like to avoid our own version of bastille day. Unfettered greed isn’t working out for the majority of the population like it was 50 years ago. And it’s getting much much worse.

 

unfettered greed by the gov?

 

And yet we could still use a few more bridles…

 

even if they hurt the poor? making yourself feel good & making the world a better place aren't the same thing. the latter typically requires a bit more critical thinking.

 

by everyone. Government and citizens. Those who have everything pay for laws to make it easier for them to take the rest. It’s not sustainable. It needs controls.

 

Abundant evidence says no. Markets aren’t always efficient.

 

LOL blanket statements that fettered capitalism “hurts the poor” is weak pabum probably picked up by watching too much fox business. Certainly doesn’t hold up in real life. Govt has a place in enacting reasonable restraints for a host of reasons.