Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

arguing against owning your home is arguing in favor of rent-seeking



Actually, in most of the world, owning your home (really the land underneath it that is zoned as residential) is a form of rent-seeking, which is why 'land value tax' taxes that economic rent (money earned without providing anything in return).

Unfortunately, people have somehow been convinced that house price inflation is good because their house has more and more value, like a wheelbarrow of inflated currency and that the only fix is for everyone to buy their own house/land, which only worsens the problem.


The parable is very explicitly contrasting taking what you need / taking one seat at the theatre / owning a home to live in, with taking everything and depriving others of the use of what should be common / taking all the seats at the theatre / hoarding homes to extract economic rent, respectively. I'm 99% sure you understood the point too.


"Taking one seat at the theater" is something any single family owner-occupier could learn from:

- Houses are way bigger than they need to be

- Their footprints are enlarged further by useless setbacks and lawns

- A single household monopolizes this footprint for the entire vertical dimension


I’m not sure there’s a practical or fair way to quantify what someone needs, how can that be measured? Or worse, enforced?


In general i think its not about enforcement, but incentives e.g. designing a tax system that penalises owning many homes.


but what if you have a valid plan in the work for the many homes? I think it is a huge violation of privacy for the government to need to vet you on the reasons for your private property


The implication of the ancient Roman theatre is that the person is trying to make a public space (theatre) private (their own use / enjoyment).

The implication being that the only rent seeker will be the state i assume


That is an argument against greedy hoarding, not home ownership.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: