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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2024

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  • Art. 3 Abs. 3 “Niemand darf wegen […] seiner religiösen oder politischen Anschauungen benachteiligt oder bevorzugt werden.”

    Es geht hier nicht um eine einfache persönliche politische Meinung, sondern um die Mitgliedschaft in einer gesichert rechtsextremen Vereinigung. Das ist schon ein Unterschied.

    Ich weiß bei Beamten gilt das Neutralitätsgebot

    Für Beamte gilt vor allem das Bekenntnis zum Grundgesetz und der freiheitlich demokratischen Grundordnung.
    Aus §33 Beamtenstatusgesetz:

    Beamtinnen und Beamte müssen sich durch ihr gesamtes Verhalten zu der freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung im Sinne des Grundgesetzes bekennen und für deren Erhaltung eintreten.

    Das bedeutet nicht nur Neutralität. Sie müssen sich aktiv für diese Grundsätze einsetzen.

    Lehrer werden ja nicht mehr in den Beamtenstatus gehoben und das verbietet denen ja nicht, die AfD zu wählen

    Es geht hier nicht darum, wen sie wählen. Die Wahlen sind sowieso geheim. Es geht hier um Parteimitgliedschaft.

    Ich bin ja Grundsätzlich der Meinung, es gehört auch zur Demokratie, wenn das Volk auf demokratischem eine gesichert Rechtsextreme Partei wählt. […] Wenn die schlussendlich die Demokratie auf demokratische Weise abschaffen, ist es dass was das Volk will,

    Zu wehrhaften Demokratie gehört, ganz explizit, dass man verfassungsfeindliche Parteien verbieten kann und dass man und eine Abschaffung der Demokratien nicht über sich ergehen lassen muss. Das sind genau die Lehren die man aus der NS-Zeit gezogen hat.

    Mit Verboten oder einer Hetzjagd wird man die Wähler nicht umstimmen.

    Es gibt keine Hetzjagd. Wenn man der AfD sagt, dass ihre Ideologie widerlich ist, fällt das unter Meinungsäußerung. Das ist der AfD natürlich nicht recht, wenn sie gegen sie selbst gerichtet ist, da suhlt man sich lieber in dieser pathetischen herbeifantasierten Opferrolle. Aufrufe zum Parteiverbot sind auch keine Hetzjagd, sondern schlicht der Ruf nach Rechtsstaatlichkeit. Wenn die AfD sich nicht an die Regeln hält, die für alle Parteien gelten, dann landen sie halt vor Gericht.

    Da stimme ich dir aber zu, was das umstimmen der Wähler angeht.
    Solange sie keine bessere Politik machen haben die anderen Parteien es verdient Wähler zu verlieren und jede Partei, die Alternativen bietet hat es verdient im politischen Wettbewerb deren Stimmen abzugreifen, solange sie sich an die Regeln des Grundgesetzes hält.






  • I honestly wouldn’t say they are keen to cooperate with the AfD, especially as long as it is possible to achieve their goals with a partner as malleable as the SPD

    And when they don’t get what they want from any of the other parties they will cooperate with the AfD.
    As they have done in Thuringia, as they have done in the Bundestag. Once voting together has been established as normal, forming a coalition is not a big next step.


  • Why did the landlords charge $300 20 years ago when they could have charged $500? Or was the supply of homes appropriate for the number of people?

    Yes supply and demand limit how much they can charge. I’ve already conceded as much 8 hours ago.

    People have always been greedy. […] Is it a problem? Yes.

    So that feels like an appropriate answer to your question from yesterday

    Is it greedy landlords? Or is there a bigger issue at play, and landlords are the scapegoat?

    I think you summarized it nicely, including your comment on the nature of capitalism. It is not a coincidence, that basically all early criticism of capitalism is centered around landlords. Even Adam Smith criticized the “rentier”.

    Look, I agree with you. We need more housing supply. It reduces landlords ability to raise rents.
    But it does not change the underlying issue that landlords are greedy and will charge as much as they can get away with.


  • Fact is, the supply of homes is just as much to blame for high rent prices as greedy landlords.

    Again, supply and demand only determine how much a landlord can charge, they do not force them to raise prices.
    If anything, supply not matching demand enables more greedy behavior.

    If the landlords charged less than what the home is worth, you would never be able to find a place to live near where you want/need as everything would be sold out.

    Only if you assume that only local landlords rent out cheaply while all others continue to raise rents. Besides that there are always factors why certain locations are more popular than others.

    You’re generally right that insufficient housing is a supply problem but housing is not like other goods that can just be substituted.
    If the price of steak goes up, I can just stop eating steak but if the price of housing rises, just becoming homeless is not a reasonable option.
    And sure, if the rent in the place you want to move to is too high then maybe don’t move there.
    But if the rent in the place you already live in rises then what? Just move out, away from your home, away from friends and family, away from your job?

    So yes, more housing supply might be the solution* but it still is no argument that greed is not the problem.

    *with all the previous caveats


  • To be clear, I am making one statement in this discussion and that is that the price is being set higher than it needs to be.
    By stating that int he discussion about Landlord greed, it can be inferred that I equate this with greed.

    It’s no different than any other product you could buy in a store.

    Saying that other businesses operate similarly does not refute my point. As you yourself pointed out, at best your argument is that all “capitalism is greed”.

    It’s interesting that when talking about the people building homes, you totally get the profit driven mentality.

    I never pretended not to “get” it. I’m just claiming that it’s greedy.

    The way I see it there are two ways to counter my argument:
    Either show that landlords have no choice and must demand the prices they do.
    Or argue that wanting more than you need (usually to the detriment of others) is not greed. In that case I would be very interested where greed actually starts.


  • The price is set by the landlord based on what people are willing to pay.

    What people are willing to pay sets the upper limit of what he can charge. He is not forced to set the price at this upper limit. No amount of demand forces him to increase the price beyond cost + enough profit to live off.

    Or the local/state governments need to create zones for lower/middle income homes or apartments. Or in some way they need to encourage developers to build these homes.

    I’m not sure how zoning in the US works. How exactly does this reduce construction costs or increase return on investment without high rents? What incentive does this give profit oriented investors to invest in affordable housing instead of other investment options?


  • supply and demand is driving these costs

    In an abstract economy 101 sense that is true.
    In a more concrete real world sense, the price is set by the landlord. Neither the supply nor the demand curve force the landlord to increase rent.

    We need to prioritize building low income/affordable homes. Flood the market with supply and the price will go down.

    That too is somewhat true. In a profit oriented market however the lower bound of the price of rent is dictated by the building costs, the time it takes to recuperate these costs and the expected profit margin.
    Assuming building costs are more or less fixed in the short term, flooding the market and reducing the price you can charge will reduce potential profits. Thus private investors are incentivized to build only so much that it does not significantly lower prices.

    So, the “we” that could lower prices by building more would have to be the state or some public entity that is less profit focused, not private landlords.





  • Curious, that article mentions that “The incident was first reported by Ostsee-Zeitung, a major German daily newspaper.” and links to this article.

    That original article contains the following passage:

    Teil der Reisepapiere waren die von ihnen unterschriebenen Verhörprotokolle. „Da standen Sätze drin, die wir so gar nicht gesagt haben“, sagt Charlotte Pohl. „Die haben es so hingedreht, dass wir zugegeben hätten, dass wir illegal in den USA arbeiten wollen.“

    Part of the travel documents were the interrogation protocols signed by them. “There were sentences in there that we didn’t say at all,” says Charlotte Pohl. “They twisted it so that we had admitted that we wanted to work illegally in the USA.”

    Yet usatoday only reports the allegations, not the denial.



  • Einfach den Freibetrag bei der Einkommenssteuer erhöhen, dann bekommt wenigstens jeder was ab.

    Jain.

    Zum Einen bekommen nur die etwas davon ab, die mehr als den Freibetrag verdienen.
    Zum Anderen verschiebt eine Anhebung des Freibetrags die ganze Steuerkurve nach rechts. Damit werden hohe Einkommen mehr entlastet als niedrige.

    Eine Senkung oder Abschaffung der Mehrwertsteuer auf Grundnahrungsmittel würde Allen, vor allem aber niedrigen Einkommen zu Gute kommen. Und im stark umkämpften Lebensmitteleinzelhandel dürfte diese Steuersenkung, anders als in der Gastro, fast 1:1 beim Verbraucher ankommen.