this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
391 points (99.5% liked)

A Boring Dystopia

15012 readers
442 users here now

Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.

Rules (Subject to Change)

--Be a Decent Human Being

--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title

--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article

--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.

--Posts must have something to do with the topic

--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.

--No NSFW content

--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 87 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Poor people can't buy homes and those investors are the same people who make everyone else poor.

[–] Hayduke@lemmy.world 59 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

This isn't the rich, that's what makes it so sad. These funds are managed by vultures, yes, but these portfolios are quickly bundled and turned into financial instruments, which in turn portions of them are rolled into other funds, which in turn are sold to groups like teachers pension funds, or fractions sold on Robinhood using fancy names that disguise what is in them. These funds are sold not to the rich but to those trying to stay ahead of the meat grinder that is the American capitalist economy. The rich get fees that are completely divorced from how well the funds perform, meanwhile working folk are inadvertently funding and fueling the machine that is making it impossible for them to afford to buy a home.

[–] mriormro@lemmy.zip 34 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I don't think you understand.

EAT.

THE

RICH.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that too, but my complaint is about the system that makes the rich while simultaneously convincing us to inadvertently participate in and strengthen our own economic slavery.

[–] llama@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's by design though. They get rich off selling us the promise of something being the next frontier of personal sovereignty.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago
[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

If repeating your meaningless slogan is the only response you can muster to someone actually trying to offer substantive explanation, you're the one that lacks understanding, whether willfully or not.

Writing it in all caps only further emphasizes this.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Should 10x property taxes on non-primary-residences, and split the proceeds between subsidizing construction of new housing and being distributed as a UBI. Would be better than trying to ban speculative investment in housing outright, because it would be attacking the underlying market factors instead of telling investors they can't try to make a profit.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

not only that, place limits on how many properties they can own as well, plus also close loopholes like using LLC / some kind of other shady company to buy more houses.

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

place limits on how many properties they can own as well, plus also close loopholes like using LLC / some kind of other shady company to buy more houses.

This is a cat and mouse game that the law, glacially paced as it is, can never win. The tax strategy suggested would be much more effective.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

That's closer to trying to ban speculative investment. I guess my opinion on this is just that this type of approach won't work as well, because keeping people from participating in the market isn't a direct way to move the market. And what needs to happen is, lower housing prices and regular people having greater proportional purchasing power, so the best focus would be to give investors strong incentives to sell, increase supply, and redistribute wealth, in a way that's easy to enforce.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Houses should be for living in, not financial vehicles.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago

I'm not exactly arguing against that, I am suggesting taking steps to tank their price and discourage using them as a store of wealth.

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

It's impossible to prevent anything of significant value that can be owned from becoming a "financial vehicle" to some extent. This is idealism with no practical application.

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 49 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I get letters from realtors asking me to sell mine to their “client”. I’m sure they are investors so they can fuck off. I’ll take less money to make sure a family gets my house when sell.

[–] cmbabul@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I get emails and scam phone calls asking me to sell the last house my parents owned when I lived there, they sold that property 4 years ago

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Sell it to them lol

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So can we stop this? Please?

Investors should NOT be allowed to own houses, period. People should own houses. I don't care if a few people have more than one house and rent that out, small time land lords are fine.

These investment companies are the worst and they destroy everything they touch, everything is immediately scorched earth. Meanwhile we're in a very preventable global housing crisis, but hey, let's sell homes to investment companies, because what could possibly go wrong?

[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Nah, all landlords are leeches. Rent-seeking is literally parasitic by nature.

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

So everyone who has enough money to rent, but not enough to own, should be homeless? That middle ground of renting has to exist, or we're overall in a much worse state of affairs. And you can't rent unless there is a homeowner to rent from.

Also, a lot of people deliberately choose renting over owning, because they value things like not having the financial burden of house maintenance/repairs, or it being orders of magnitude easier to relocate, for whatever reason, and so on.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

So everyone who has enough money to rent, but not enough to own, should be homeless?

The concept of someone having enough money to rent but not enough to own is ghoulish in the first place. If my landlord can pay $<1,200 for this house's mortgage and upkeep, and I can pay $1,200 a month for the right to sleep in it, then we should simply cut out the middle man and have me pay that $<1,200 a month for mortgage and upkeep directly.

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The concept of someone having enough money to rent but not enough to own is ghoulish in the first place.

Don't think you're being a little dramatic? There are many more costs involved in owning a house than the mortgage payment.

If my landlord can pay $<1,200 for this house’s mortgage and upkeep, and I can pay $1,200 a month for the right to sleep in it, then we should simply cut out the middle man and have me pay that $<1,200 a month for mortgage and upkeep directly.

You're paying for not having the responsibility to pay for any maintenance/repairs upfront, and for having the ability to easily pack up and move on short notice. If the roof suddenly needs replacing, that's $9500 on average that you have to pay right now.

Chances are, if you're financially stable enough that you'd be able to handle things like that without it being a financial catastrophe for you, then you do have enough money to own.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So everyone who has enough money to rent, but not enough to own, should be homeless?

Who said that? Other than you?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 points 3 months ago

The entire concept of "rent" needs to die in a goddamn fire. There are much better arrangements to fill the niche you are talking about. What is lacking is a regulatory environment making those arrangements preferable to rent.

"Rent" is typically a year-to-year arrangement. Every year, the deal is renegotiated and the tenant ends up paying more.

A "Land Contract" is (initially) similar to rent, but it is negotiated only once, and the monthly fee is fixed for the life of the agreement, like a mortgage.

For the first three years of the agreement, you pay your monthly fee, and you live in the home. You are free to walk away at any time.

If you stay longer than three years, the entire agreement automatically converts to a private mortgage, with your first three years of payments considered the down payment. You continue to make the same payment, but now you are earning equity.


All that is well and good, but landlords won't offer land contracts, because land contracts favor the tenant/buyer.

Not to worry. We're going to restructure property taxes. We're going to have landlords begging tenants to switch to land contracts. The way we do it is by offering an owner-occupant exemption to property taxes. This is called a "homestead exemption" in some states. Basically, if you occupy a home, you pay a tiny fraction of the property taxes that you would owe if you didn't occupy that home. Or, more accurately, if you are an investor, your property tax rate is going to the moon.

Land Contract tenants/buyers are considered "owners". The property you are living in is owned by the occupants, and financed by the landlord/seller. The property taxes are at the owner-occupant rate, not the investor rate. Property taxes on "rentals" melt all the profits the landlord could be earning, so they are incentivized to switch to land contracts.

[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago (5 children)

No, the system should be changed to not arbitrarily restrict people's access to necessities.

Housing, and other necessities, should be community property. If you don't live in the house, you forfeit ownership of that house so someone else who needs it can live in it. Fuck the exploitative system of private property ownership.

Renting is only necessitated because we live in a capitalist system. All your complaints only exist because of the capitalist system. It doesn't need to exist.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] vane@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

We're chickens stuck inside investors slaughterhouse.

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[–] SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

This might be an unpopular opinion but housing should be classified as a human right.

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 3 points 3 months ago

you're right, whether it's popular or not

[–] magiccupcake@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (3 children)

While these investors are absolutely soulless and deserve to be called out, there's another aspect of this problem that I feel doesn't get talked about enough.

If we just built enough housing this problem would go away. And it would be easy if we had a system that allowed people to build new things and undercut competition. But we can't because regulations make it nearly impossible to make anything other than houses.

People investing on houses are a symptom of the larger overall problem, of there not being enough fucking housing.

[–] Best_Jeanist@discuss.online 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No. Nobody needs a Bitcoin to live, and Bitcoins are still expensive. We have more houses than we need, and housing is expensive. That's because they're both being used as ponzi schemes.

[–] magiccupcake@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That's kinda exactly my point? If someone could print a fuckton of new bitcoins it's value would drop. The same is true for housing. We may have technically enough housing for everyone, but that means nothing if that housing is not also where people want to or need to live.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 6 points 3 months ago

zoning laws, and NIMBYism by rich people are the problem. i think moreso with nimbyism.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If we just built enough housing this problem would go away.

Fun fact: there are more vacant homes than there are homeless. By a factor of 28. We have the homes, we just need to let people own them

[–] magiccupcake@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Yes of course, but how do you propose we get that to happen?

Why are these homes empty in the first place? Are they in the same places where housing is needed?

And even if you could house all homeless people, that still leaves the problem of the crushing expense of housing in many places.

[–] tehWrapper@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Government officials should not be allowed to own rental property.. problem solved.

[–] jaykrown@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

This is absolutely terrible for working people and the economy as a whole. Gatekeeping which ultimately brings down everyone including the investors who hold it above the heads of others.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 1 points 3 months ago

I hope they all get wrecked when it bursts. This is madness and literal biblical demon levels of evil.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

blow the bubble

[–] maxxadrenaline@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Funny how housing prices are conveniently all falling

load more comments
view more: next ›