Is income inequality unjust, and if so, where is the injustice?

Bubble181

Bubble181

GasBandit said:
My GF gets awkwardly quiet when I start saying things like "Landlords provide housing the same way ticket scalpers provide concerts" because I think her retirement plan had been to buy up houses and rent them out.
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I still maintain there's a huge difference between corporate/professional landlords (real estate investment companies like JLL or Cofinimmo, slumlords,...) and regular people who choose to invest an inheritance or saved up wealth (the second one being mostly applicable to Gen X and earlier, of course) to buy a second house and use it as supplemental income/a nest egg/secondary pension fund.
This is a societal/governmental choice, partially. In the UK, something like 70% of people rent. In Belgium, nearly 85% are owners of their own home - and nearly all the rest are owned by private individuals. I own a small apartment in Brussels which I rent out, and which helps me to pay my mortgage. It's a form of "early inheritance" my parents used to pass along part of their wealth to me and my brother (avoiding my sister getting a part) when they sold our family home.
Is it perfectly fair? Maybe not - in a complete socialist society there's no such thing, I guess. But it also doesn't make me a leech who's profiting off the back of poor hardworking lower class people. being a landlord is not in it self by definition Evil or Bad. Being a greedy fuck who abuses the power he holds over others to milk them dry while letting them live in squalor is.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

Bubble181 said:
I still maintain there's a huge difference between corporate/professional landlords (real estate investment companies like JLL or Cofinimmo, slumlords,...) and regular people who choose to invest an inheritance or saved up wealth (the second one being mostly applicable to Gen X and earlier, of course) to buy a second house and use it as supplemental income/a nest egg/secondary pension fund.
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Idk the way I saw it described was that the best landlords are small-time who just own a spare property or two. And the worst landlords are small-time who just own a spare property or two.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bubble181 said:
I still maintain there's a huge difference between corporate/professional landlords (real estate investment companies like JLL or Cofinimmo, slumlords,...) and regular people who choose to invest an inheritance or saved up wealth (the second one being mostly applicable to Gen X and earlier, of course) to buy a second house and use it as supplemental income/a nest egg/secondary pension fund.
This is a societal/governmental choice, partially. In the UK, something like 70% of people rent. In Belgium, nearly 85% are owners of their own home - and nearly all the rest are owned by private individuals. I own a small apartment in Brussels which I rent out, and which helps me to pay my mortgage. It's a form of "early inheritance" my parents used to pass along part of their wealth to me and my brother (avoiding my sister getting a part) when they sold our family home.
Is it perfectly fair? Maybe not - in a complete socialist society there's no such thing, I guess. But it also doesn't make me a leech who's profiting off the back of poor hardworking lower class people. being a landlord is not in it self by definition Evil or Bad. Being a greedy fuck who abuses the power he holds over others to milk them dry while letting them live in squalor is.
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figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Won’t Pay for the Complete Duration of Anesthesia for Patients’ Surgical Procedures

"In an unprecedented move, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans representing Connecticut, New York and Missouri have unilaterally declared it will no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure goes beyond an arbitrary time limit, regardless of how long the surgical procedure takes. The American Society of Anesthesiologists calls on Anthem to reverse this proposal immediately."

Once again: Health Insurance is not Health Care. Even if you have what used to be some of the best insurance, it still doesn't cover essential costs.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

911premium.jpeg


I can't even adequately verbalize my level of incredulity at this...not because I can't believe they would do such a thing, but because I can't believe they are unable to perceive just how much doing such a thing would accelerate a class war.

--Patrick
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Hornets apologize after pretending to give child PS5 and taking it away off camera

TL;DR the Hornets mascot and cheerleaders did a "skit" where a child was brought out, they read his letter asking for a PS5, and then they gave him a PS5. Only they took the PS5 back behind the scenes and replaced it with a jersey. They were rightfully called out on this bullshit, and now they're backpedaling and trying to make right by giving him the PS5 and a VIP experience at a future game.

Great, they caved to the pressure from bad publicity, but who thought this was a good idea to begin with? Who pitched the idea of pretending to give a child a present only to take it away from them later? That is something a villain would do in a Christmas movie.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Party City is going out of business, with little to no notice to employees. Seems like a good time to remind everyone that they were bought by a private equity firm last year, who likely sold off the land under the stores and made other decisions to maximize profit in the short term while intentionally killing the business. They'll sell off the name later to another company so that they can have a nostalgic comeback.

A lot of news stories are going to say shit like they "struggled with inflation", and outright lies like "we’ve done everything possible that we could to try to avoid this outcome,” but that's almost certainly bullshit and the real details of how they were screwed over by private equity will come out later, with much less fanfare, just like they did for Red Lobster, Toys R Us, etc.

Big Lots also announced they're going out of business, and they also were bought by private equity, leading to their demise.

Rich assholes are systematically buying up once profitable businesses, stripping them of any value, and screwing over employees in the process.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Short-term gains have become the #1 priority for far too powerful a group.
"Oh a cOmPanY eXiSTs to mAkE pRoFIt" apologists will scream, once again, ignoring that this isn't providing the best return for any actual investors, customers, shareholders - only for those deliberately buying and selling without concern for what the company is.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I wonder what it would be like if healthcare companies were forced to publish the percentage of their members who die each year? Not specifically those who died because denied, or even excluding things like automobile accidents, just the overall percentage of those who died. Would having to publicly publish that number incentivize them to prioritize providing care rather than denying it?

--Patrick
 
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