Which one of you did this? Great landlord trolling opportunity just opened up

My family has been and still are landlords. I spent many of my weekends and summers helping to maintain our property. We owned various properties and I've seen the ins and outs of how ugly this industry can be. My parents looked down on our tenants with utter contempt, as if this housing was a benevolent gift to them. It didn't help that we catered mostly to lower income and retirees. Personally, seeing how my parents regarded these people and how callously we threw them out if we felt we could make a case in court was appalling. That being said, I'll do my best to engage with you.

What constitutes a real job? Well, I think the first chapter of Das Kapital has a few answers here. It can be anything that produces a socially necessary good. It does not matter where the need arises whether the belly or the mind. For instance, humans need and crave creative activity. Thus, we have artists who produce art that satisfies these cravings. We can go and please our minds by observing and studying art. In a more concrete sense, human beings need food to live. Thus, the farmer produces produce to nourish us. Now, it is true that humans need shelter. We must acknowledge that at the most basic level human beings need food, water and shelter to survive. Landlords do not produce socially necessary goods by simply owning shelter. Often times those landlords did not have any hand in producing the shelter. They merely hold it as private property. In my family's case, we own a large plot of land. On that land are lots where people may place their mobile homes. We collect rent for allowing them to place their homes on our land. Barring the fact that as a socialist I have a built in abhorrence for private property, what have we done to produce shelter in this case? Nothing at all, by the mere fact that we hold land we are given the right to extract profit from the labor of others. A feudal arrangement if you ask me. You ask about your job and about influencers. I believe I have already answered that in the first part. Now, I have a friend who does indeed build homes and rents them out afterwards. Why do I still hate this then? Well, the issue then comes to this: Why do you feel entitled to the produce of another human's labor? This is the tricky issue when it comes to private property, especially when it comes to one of the three necessities of life. Without shelter we are liable to die much sooner than ever necessary. Thus, you being able to lord that over the heads of, more often than not, economically disadvantaged people is terrifying.

No, I have no issues with hotels. Even the Soviet Union had hotels. Temporary accommodation is just that. It is offered for you, in most cases, when you are traveling and need a place to rest and recuperate. Housing is an entirely different manner and you hit on why that is. Homes allow us to survive and propagate the species. Not only that but it creates stability and raises the quality of life. It is necessary to our survival, whether or not I can book a hotel for my vacation to Vancouver is not.

I thought you said no "gotchas?" This is a fairly typical "what about?" question that comes up in these debates. It is entirely irrelevant and frankly pointless. In the United States there exist more unoccupied houses than homeless people. Not to mention I already live with three other people. The issue can be solved in a short time, if we have the will to do so.

I am against private property, and that comes from someone who stands to inherit 20 acres of property. Nonetheless, when the times comes (if it ever does in my time) I am happy to relinquish my rights to it. The land is a common good. I'd hope that under a communist society we will have time for self-actualization and the enrichment of human life. Being a landlord is frankly pathetic and low goal if you ask me. What, your lifelong goal is to leech income from working people?

Housing is a human right because it is necessary for survival let alone the societal good that stable housing provides. If everyone had to rely on inheriting land and property for their housing some might never attain it. It also ties you to the land, thus accentuating the feudal nature of capitalism.