Adam Smith wrote about how much he hated landlords because they are feudalism.
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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Yes the $7.25 minimum wage is why rent is $1500 (/s)
No, it's a dictatorship. Dictatorship of capital. Soviet union was also a dictatorship, which is why they also had elites that dictated how much of what you can have. It wasn't because of the communism that they had elites, it was because it was a dictatorship.
Of course the funny thing about capital is that it tends to accumulate, so you get a dictatorship pretty naturally.
Sure, fuck it, that's communism. Death to communism, instead we must create a classless stateless society!
You know what my eyes are opened too —capitalism is when hard working Americans get all the capital and communist leeches aren't allowed to steal it just because they're in charge.
You know what goes well with capitalism? Democracy! You vote on your sheriff, so why vote for who your boss is at work, and how many sick days everyone gets? Let's go full capitalist!
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turns out everything people hate about communism is actually just stuff capitalism does.
Say it louder for the people in the back
But we have to be moderately responsible for the outcomes instead of just throwing our hands in the air and giving up!
oh yeah, definitely! i agitate toward socialist (and anarcho-syndicalist) policy at every chance i get! On top of that, I'm also continuously attempting to plant subliminal ideations toward it among people with whom i interact on a daily basis putting it in terms my propaganda-poisoned colleagues' minds might actually grasp--
'if only we could decide this democratically, huh?`
'after all, we're the ones who actually have to do the work and see how things transpire here on the front lines of the whole operation...'
'nobody upstairs knows how things work around here better than us.'
'btw don't we have some kind of right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances, ACTUALLY...?'
'idk i just like democracy bro ;3'
'kinda sucks how our tax dollars are being spent to prop up a genocidal regime so they can give their citizens free healthcare while we're stuck with nothing, doesn't it...'
'hey if you want cheaper eggs, i know a place near here...! it's a co-op market owned and operated by the local farmers and a dozen fresh eggs is like ... sometimes HALF of what the big chain stores charge!'
"ohhh i'm so sorry to hear your cable company treats you that way...! it's awful! y'know, it seems like every time people ask a corporation to handle infrastructure it just makes more waste, fraud and abuse... but as for me, the fiber optic line to my house is fast and stable and cheap, and it's owned by all us residents in my town. Municipally owned! I would love for you to have that too. wouldn't you? why not ask your neighbors how they feel about it?"
all of these examples are exaggerated and hyperbolic for illustrative purposes. i usually have to be a lot more subtle in order to avoid tipping them into a performative faux-patriotic 'four legs good two legs bad' thought terminating cliche fugue state.
Happened to me. Lived in a building for multiple leases for $1100 -1300 a month over the course of seven years. Next renewal jumped to over $1800 per month. When I asked why, they said, "Because it's what people are willing to pay. "
Here in NY we have 1 year leases capped at an increase of 3% per year. However landlords can increase rent another 3% if they can show that they had to do upgrades or emergency repairs or some other nonsense. They've applied for and received this exemption to double our increase EVERY SINGLE YEAR I've lived there, and it seems there is nothing to stop them from doing it every year until the end of time.
The infuriating thing? There are no actual upgrades being done. The roads are constantly full of potholes. The water lines constantly spring leaks. The power is constantly cutting out - brownouts are common, and blackouts happen every winter. We are responsible for paying all our utilities, mowing the lawn, and maintaining our lots, and the office is apparently responsible for nothing and spends nothing upgrading or maintaining the park. But somehow they qualify for that extra 3% increase every single year without fail.
- I live in a trailer park owned by Horizon Land Management. There are youtube videos detailing how trailer parks used to be cheap housing for the poor, but now that private equity companies like Horizon are buying them up, they're raising lot rent sky high and parasitizing the people who are so poor they can't afford to leave. Trailers were the cheapest housing many of us could afford. Where else could we go? They basically suck the blood out of us like vampires.
At least they're honest.
"The elite telling the working class to stand in line and dictating what to pay for a living expense. That is not capitalism"
Man, this is on the same level as "nazism is leftist ideology because national SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!!!!"
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It is what American boomers think “communism” is.
It’s also not too far separated from the Soviet Union, which represents “communism” in many peoples minds despite its fairly rapid departure from Marxist ideals.
Ah yes, the Soviet union where rent capped out at 10% of your salary, and that's just in places without any labor incentives. If you were in a new industrial town your rent was free since it was you doing a favor to the people in moving to a remote area and having to live in a new city. That's totally the same thing as American capitalism and totally opposed to Marxist ideals...
10%! Where can I sign up?
1930s-1980s USSR. (Gorbachev's reforms really fucked with some areas before the collapse but the edge of the union was unharmed until the 1991 collapse wherein many former states of the USSR experienced homelessness as a problem for the first time in 70 years.)
Also some parts of China have rules of 0-25% of your salary depending on location, whether or not you were a rural citizen before moving to a rented home, and why you moved. (not that normal rent is far off from that thanks to the fact only 8% of the Chinese population doesn't own a home.)
For fun, when I was in school, I'd ask people what they thought of this and that all the time and I was very much impressed that "what is ____" are questions that don't have answers. Our education is fucked.
Generally, to boomers capitalism and communism is absolutely summed up with that drunk in the grocery store story.
Consumer choice is typically the vibes.
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I have a MAGA family member who says things like that all the time. Usually he starts by saying "the socialist aristocracy did [insert complaint about capitalism]..."
You don't understand! Communism is when bad things. And in capitalism nothing bad can happen, it can only good happen.
Communism is when bad decision of politician affects entire nation.
Capitalism is when bad decision of a rich person affects entire nation.
Difference is that one of those people is elected in democratic system.
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Communism is when capitalism does something I don't like
Lol "Communism".
I mean, it is moving past capitalism and into something else, but that thing is feudalism.
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This is why the USSR and PRC did cultural revolutions and re-education camps.
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