2013-08-02, 21:23 | Link #29801 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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U.S. sets rules to prevent type of rail crash that hit Quebec town
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9711BT20130803 And now, how much time before Ottawa do the same than Washington, it they ever do ...
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2013-08-02, 21:23 | Link #29802 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 38
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2013-08-02, 21:34 | Link #29803 | |
廉頗
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Massachusetts
Age: 35
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Even in a gut rehab like that, there will always be repairs that need to be done. And it's not like you're just taking home all the rent and pocketing it. Most of it goes towards utility expenses, taxes, and of course, your mortgage which is usually the bulk of the expenses. Unless you're uber-rich and you just buy property without any financing, but then you obviously made a significant financial investment and assumed the risk involved in doing so. But yeah, once you get to like 10 units or above, there is constant work to be done; the bookkeeping, the maintenance, budgeting, staying on top of tenants for rent, evictions, etc. There's no having your name on a sheet of paper and just sitting there like Ledgem seemed to imply (unless I misinterpreted him). Now don't get me wrong, I think owning properties is a great way to make money and that's one of the reasons I'm pursuing it myself, but there is hard work, risk, and skill involved in the process. |
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2013-08-02, 21:49 | Link #29805 | ||
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Not to say they don't have the right to complain and demand whatever pay they want, I have nothing against underpaid workers seeking fair compensations, but these are not exactly rocket scientist positions - keep walking off the job and they'll see just how little effort it takes to replace unskilled workers. Last edited by kyp275; 2013-08-02 at 22:00. |
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2013-08-03, 01:48 | Link #29807 | |
Logician and Romantic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Within my mind
Age: 43
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Worse, companies sometimes even perform massive numbers of lay-offs AND report record profits. The separation of what the company can afford to pay, and what they are actually paying, is just too large. And whenever there is a rise in profits, the money goes to the bonuses of the CEOs and not a cent goes to the workers. And you wonder why people complain?
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2013-08-03, 04:05 | Link #29809 | |
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
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People need to stop looking at the dollar amounts of wages, and look at the purchasing power. The minimum wage should be nearly $20 an hour, but it's not, because for the last thirty years the vast majority of money has gone to a very small amount of people, and everyone else's earnings have stagnated. The average worker is barely making as much as they did back in 1979. In terms of dollar value, the employees of Henry Ford's factory made more money then than the average worker now, adjusted for inflation. That's pathetic. The only reason people don't notice it as much, is because the government has deregulated and subsidized everything. Billions are paid in subsidies and welfare while the Fed artificially suppresses the inflation rate to keep the economy going. All this money floats to the top, where it has nowhere to go except sitting in a bank account, or the stock market. When the market gets jittery at the thought of the money faucet turning off, they'll panic and dump that cash into physical assets, which will drive up inflation. This is why the stock market and corporate profits are jacked up while the actual economy sucks. Hyperinflation is a very real concern among some economists. At this point the markets are so distorted that crashes are not only inevitable, but continually larger. Because more money is dumped on speculation than on production, it never reaches the general population, so the rising tide is lifting a few boats and drowning the rest. You can blame government for some of this, but you don't see many investors or corporations campaigning to fix it. They're too busy oggling the size of their bank accounts to see why this isn't sustainable.
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2013-08-03, 04:47 | Link #29810 |
Logician and Romantic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Within my mind
Age: 43
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What we need, is for "record profits" = "everyone gets a raise, especially the lowest paid".
Instead we have "record profits" = "we manage to keep everyone's salary below inflation again, so share holders gets a boost." I have no problem with a struggling company keeping their salaries low. But the modem environment is about being rich at the expense of the lowest paid. Hell, even Chinese workers are now demanding better pay. Paying a living wage was suppose to be a social responsibility. But now it is all about share holders.
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2013-08-03, 04:55 | Link #29811 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
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If the 'burger flippers' can get organized and force the fast food chains to cave in, they have earned their wage increase. Might makes right in the current economic reality, although most of the time it's the management and the owners (shareholders) of business who claim the largest piece of corporate revenue. |
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2013-08-03, 09:01 | Link #29812 |
( ಠ_ಠ)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
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Picking up pieces of detached body parts off train tracks using tweezers and tossing them into garbage bags requires no special skill, training, or knowledge - just desensitization.
But it pays good because you know, no one in their right mind wants to take up that career. demand fulfills wages.
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2013-08-03, 09:22 | Link #29813 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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Attack on Indian mission in Afghanistan raises specter of regional struggle
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97203E20130803 Hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay shows signs of weakening http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...96U1FZ20130731
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2013-08-03, 11:03 | Link #29814 | |||
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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I remember reading a quote from a history class in high school calling out landlords as being "parasites" within society. I wish I remembered who it came from. Regardless, the idea stuck with me. If you perceived me as lashing out against landlords, you were correct. Note that I make a distinction between "landlord" and "property manager." In smaller operations these positions can be held by the same person, but in larger operations they are distinct. The "property manager" - if they're doing their job correctly - handles problems that the tenants encounter and ensures that everything is working smoothly. They can also expand and upgrade the property, although this usually comes with a nice fat price hike to the tenants. The "landlord" is the owner of the properties. His management of the properties generally does not go beyond purchasing the land/buildings and then hiring personnel to oversee them. One landlord who owned the apartment complex I stayed in would occasionally drop by to chat with the property manager, perhaps checking to see that things were OK in the process, but that's it. Tell me, what value did that landlord add to the property? What was his contribution to society? He represented one more outstretched hand demanding payment, an additional $100 on my monthly rent. People need to live somewhere, so he could certainly hike up prices to accommodate himself and his lifestyle as he wished. So what did my fellow tenants and I get in exchange for having him drain money from us each month? Quote:
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2013-08-03, 12:05 | Link #29815 | ||||
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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Last year i had client who had to file claim because of the mess left by her last client who was growing Marijuana. Two years ago I had client whose last renter skip out on the last months rent and left a whole in the house along with a huge mess. The hole was use to steal electricity. Six years ago a client bought a house and rent it back to the seller. The seller then decided to sued my client saying the house was still theirs. Fought 2 years in court system and because of pressure form the recession decided to default on the mortgage and leave the mess to the bank. Quote:
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Also unless it is in a high demand area like SF, most landlord don't have much profit after taxes, loan payment and maintenance. Quote:
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2013-08-03, 13:33 | Link #29816 | |
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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If there were no landlords, then what? Tent city for almost all of us? |
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2013-08-03, 14:18 | Link #29817 |
廉頗
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Massachusetts
Age: 35
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Xellos and Anh Minh pretty much said what I would say (more succintly than I would have, probably ).
Seems like you have an emotional stake in this issue on some level. Your complaints have more to do with the capitalist system than the landlords themselves. If you dislike capitalism, that's fine and I can sympathize with that (hell, I can outright AGREE with such a position), but as they say, "don't hate the player, hate the game." Not to say there aren't scummy landlords out there. There are bad people in every position... but honestly, I think the idea that landlords are parasites is pretty ludicrous. We aren't living in the feudal era. If we want to get anecdotal, many of the landlords I've met in the Boston area are actually immigrants that started out working physical labor positions, saved their money as best they could while they were young, and made wise investments. |
2013-08-03, 14:40 | Link #29818 |
Master of Coin
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Besides Mortgage, repairs, etc, a Landlord also have to pay significant taxes to the local government, and those are assessed on value, regardless if you have renter or not. I personally know commercial landlords going bankrupt from half empty buildings.
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2013-08-03, 19:51 | Link #29819 | |||||
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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When it comes to housing we're one step removed from the medical scenario, but it's similar. People have to live somewhere. Not everyone has the resources (time or money) to live wherever they want in relation to their job. Not everyone has the resources to purchase their own property outright; thus they are forced to pay rent to someone else. This is an unavoidable drain on one's resources. As I mentioned previously, if the property is well-maintained then the tenants are arguably getting a good service for the money that they're paying. That's not a situation that is automatically a given, however. The idea that there would be no place to live if it weren't for the landlords is totally false. Quote:
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I understand why what I'm saying might be construed as odd if we claim that all landlords purchased property and then spent money to build the housing for tenants. In such a scenario it's clear that something was created, added to society, and it only makes sense that people be rewarded for the service that they provided, which in this case is the capital and vision. How do you feel if we begin to talk about buildings that are already constructed - perhaps badly in need of renovation - and that are owned by the heirs to the property, or groups that simply buy and sell properties? These people or groups skim money off of people who need somewhere to live. What value are they providing back to society or to their tenants? Quote:
The "emotional stake" in this only has to do with what I perceive as unfair slights against the poor. We complain about people on welfare, or poor who demand more payment for their jobs. Tell me, where is the outrage every time landlords raise the rent by some percentage, well above inflation, each year? Complaints are leveled against people on welfare, who are identified as parasites who contribute nothing to society; where is the outrage against the landlords who are doing little more than sitting on properties and siphoning money out of the tenants who may be unable to live anywhere else? Ironically, the concept of landlords is one of the few elements from the feudal era that lives on in modern society.
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2013-08-03, 20:14 | Link #29820 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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current affairs, discussion, international |
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