Post AxM3TBWzicM63iS4f2 by snarkweek@mstdn.social
(DIR) More posts by snarkweek@mstdn.social
(DIR) Post #AxM3TAogNMuTqHigam by ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
2025-08-20T05:46:49Z
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The Q. of empty homes & their occupancy is an often discussed aspect of the UK's housing crisis. Here is a useful BBC In Depth piece exploring both the scope of the problem & some previous policy interventions (including a successful Coalition programme) that have reduced the level of unoccupied housing.Bringing unoccupied housing back into use might not completely solve the housing crisis but would make a major contribution to its alleviation.#housing #politics https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3r413l5n57o
(DIR) Post #AxM3TBWzicM63iS4f2 by snarkweek@mstdn.social
2025-08-20T07:59:14Z
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@ChrisMayLA6 Legalize squatting.
(DIR) Post #AxM5CrYwOSftP0htYW by JimmyB@mas.to
2025-08-20T08:18:40Z
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@snarkweek But if it's empty for 'too long', aren't all those things good??? I mean - this idea that we have a right to own and hold assets like housing, without using them, is insane!So doesn't it come down to a definition of 'too long'?@ChrisMayLA6
(DIR) Post #AxM7ZjLfIcgIUmWs5o by iwein@mas.to
2025-08-20T08:45:14Z
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@snarkweekSmall correction, the initial breaking in was never legal, and some scary shit needed to be done deftly with plausible deniability 😅Also the initial occupation period was no picnic in many cases.Bottom line: it's always people prepared to break the law for their ideals that open the doors to societal changes. @ChrisMayLA6
(DIR) Post #AxM8SNJKw5uQ4fUqps by snarkweek@mstdn.social
2025-08-20T08:55:08Z
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@JimmyB @ChrisMayLA6 Yes I think those are good things, because housing is not just an investment asset. The scarcity is a result of human dignity and should not become a commodity. I think 12-18 months is reasonable to look for a buyer, if it's empty for longer squatting should be allowed.
(DIR) Post #AxM8Xt8s12kOFFEK0G by JimmyB@mas.to
2025-08-20T08:56:07Z
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@snarkweek Yeah - for example. The key is that the period of being empty needs to be monitored. So when a property is empty it should go on a register...@ChrisMayLA6
(DIR) Post #AxM8ZVlHuktcJLyPlg by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-20T08:56:26Z
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@snarkweek @ChrisMayLA6 That's not ethically possible. Your example basically means making someone else the slave of the squatter and makes a mockery out of property rights. The nobel prize 2025 was awarded for the proof that rock solid property rights is fundamental to prospering societies. Without that, society soon collapses.
(DIR) Post #AxM8cSZEFQz9GwjrsW by snarkweek@mstdn.social
2025-08-20T08:56:57Z
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@JimmyB @ChrisMayLA6 Also I think renters should have buying rights to the object they live in. So if you want you can dedicate a share of your rent for a hostile takeover whether the landlord likes to or not. So after ten or twenty years the house is yours.
(DIR) Post #AxM8gzK2PKnc1CnCiG by snarkweek@mstdn.social
2025-08-20T08:57:46Z
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@JimmyB @ChrisMayLA6 Yes and there are more ins and outs, but all of it is manageable.
(DIR) Post #AxMBWbAFfeQk3px85o by snarkweek@mstdn.social
2025-08-20T09:29:31Z
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@iwein @ChrisMayLA6 Thank you, in fact I think we need much more info, because I'm patchy. I remember visiting one of those houses and talking about the violence involved. It's true that the Dutch implementation was far from perfect, because the people who felt comfortable squatting are necessarily not the group who need housing the most.
(DIR) Post #AxMD2EBMkjYE0K7UGW by iwein@mas.to
2025-08-20T09:46:24Z
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@snarkweekFrom my limited experience, the squatting community is more kind and empathic than the rest of society.I just wanted to avoid overromantization that could get people in trouble. Still I think it's a good idea, but we need to be willing to literally fight for our rights. We need to know what we're signing up for. But I'm getting into a bit of a tangent now...🙂
(DIR) Post #AxNyJevjRqRot6a4hc by StingrayBadger@zirk.us
2025-08-21T06:10:52Z
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@h4890 @snarkweek @ChrisMayLA6 The rights to property ownership need to come with responsibility. Squatting rights for long term unoccupied places are certainly one way to ensure property owners are not solely using the property for investment. Houses are for housing people. The UK housing situation is in a really bad state, we need both incentives and penalties to make sure everyone's can be housed.
(DIR) Post #AxOJ2EdQ3gs1RsY2W8 by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-21T10:03:05Z
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@StingrayBadger @snarkweek @ChrisMayLA6 This is incorrect. You own it, and that is the end of the story. If you want to have your house empty until eternity, that is what you are entitled to do. However! What probably should be done is to de-regulate the renting out of apartments. The gains should be tax free as well. That would create a strong incentive for private persons to rent out their houses and apartments to people who want to rent. The reason, after all, why rents are so high is
(DIR) Post #AxOJ8lt1LIzgJXxiYy by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-21T10:04:16Z
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@StingrayBadger @snarkweek @ChrisMayLA6 government regulations. They make it expensive to build, and by giving tennants too many rights, make many people hesitate. If the rental market was unregulated, everyone who wanted, would have a house or apartment tomorrow. Personally I have at least 3 properties I would put on the market tomorrow. Today, I am legally prohibited from doing that, so they stand empty except for the few weeks per years when I use them.
(DIR) Post #AxOQVG8WFnwcBOsj1U by ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
2025-08-21T11:26:44Z
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@h4890 @StingrayBadger @snarkweek Things are a little different in the UK - the private rental sector has some (but by no means widely scoped) regulations, but these are unevenly (shall we say) enforced.... the spiralling rents in the UK are partly to do with prose on costs (including interest rates' rises) & partly due to the absence of competition in the social area of the market after a decades long attrition against social provision....
(DIR) Post #AxOWjkIHWdYRUfjs00 by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-21T12:36:37Z
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@ChrisMayLA6 @StingrayBadger @snarkweek Ahh... got it possibly be like in sweden? If you are a big company, it is possible to rent out apartments. If you are small or an individual with 1 or 2 apartments, the government makes it very difficult. That keeps prices up, and keeps an enormous amount of apartments off the market, and the big players benefit from that. Is it similar in the UK?
(DIR) Post #AxOdf6Z1zu5gnKJ7tA by ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
2025-08-21T13:54:11Z
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@h4890 @StingrayBadger @snarkweek Not at all - a lot of small landlords (single or below five dwellings rented out), often financed via a 'buy-to-let' mortgage; these are the group about whom there are a lot of complaints, and who are most vulnerable to cost changes, therefore often hiking rents to cover their thin margins while wondering whether the eventual capital gain will be worth it.... the institutional renters are concentrated partly in the university student letting sector
(DIR) Post #AxP3gbvbTBNhANFCBk by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-21T18:45:49Z
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@ChrisMayLA6 @StingrayBadger @snarkweek Interesting! Very different from sweden! I think the country I had the least problem finding rentals in was the US. Super easy to find apartments for rent, and all kinds of quality available. This was in chicago, and it was 20 years ago.
(DIR) Post #AxPCBKgARyFgHQBUYa by StingrayBadger@zirk.us
2025-08-21T20:20:58Z
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@h4890 @snarkweek @ChrisMayLA6 Could I recommend The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin?https://www.ursulakleguin.com/dispossessed
(DIR) Post #AxQGGQnzh6kdhdUYZU by ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
2025-08-21T21:23:13Z
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@StingrayBadger @h4890 @snarkweek Great book... but years & years since I read it last... perhaps I need to reinsert my old copy into my to read pile?
(DIR) Post #AxQGGS2Z6Q07X7JhvE by StingrayBadger@zirk.us
2025-08-22T05:41:13Z
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@ChrisMayLA6 @h4890 @snarkweek It felt very relevant to the current times when I read it recently, and the really interesting ideas she brings for us
(DIR) Post #AxQGGSomDAZ7wdsD4K by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-22T08:41:23Z
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@StingrayBadger @ChrisMayLA6 @snarkweek What are the ideas?
(DIR) Post #AxQGQKRCDxLKqjY1HU by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-22T08:43:15Z
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@StingrayBadger @ChrisMayLA6 @snarkweek What are the ideas? For me, the book that best reflects my feeling when looking at todays society is Atlas shrugged. Seems like this is what is happening. I just wonder if Liechtenstein or Andorra is where the creative entrepreneurs will create their ideal community? ;)
(DIR) Post #AxQHTlhRQ9w6DxLmM4 by ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
2025-08-22T08:55:02Z
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@h4890 @StingrayBadger @snarkweek Aha, I thought you might like Ayn Rand.... there is a foundation of individualism in it that certainly fits with how the world looks to you; I found it a bit too asocial when I read it (a long time ago) but I know for many it holds a clear (shared) vision of the human condition (just one I'm less enamoured with)
(DIR) Post #AxQgG3yVAvSxhftLxg by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-22T13:32:43Z
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@ChrisMayLA6 @StingrayBadger @snarkweek I both like and dislike Ayn Rand. The stories are great, and the philosophical undercurrent does align with mine. However! What I don't like is that she portrays objectivism as something new that she created. In my opinion, it is just a mix of various existing philosophies with a new label on top. So she writes good books, but she is definitely no philosopher.
(DIR) Post #AxQis1KfeENyQ8UL3Y by nicholas@aklp.club
2025-08-22T14:01:56.757845Z
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People become philosophers all the time without inventing their own philosophical schools. Even if there is nothing new in objectivism, that doesn't preclude Ayn from the title. Afaik though, there were at least a few novel features such as deriving a theory of esthetics from individualism and her approach to intellectual property.
(DIR) Post #AxR96y7cSqjFcDAjcO by ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
2025-08-22T14:45:18Z
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@nicholas @h4890 @snarkweek @StingrayBadger Yes, its an interesting issue at what point the act of synthesis becomes something a bit more; a someone whose (research/academic) work was broadly synthetic (or synoptic) I always want to defend the notion that bringing together existing things in a novel or unusual way is a worthwhile intellectual undertaking... which is a long way round to saying I think Ayn Rand has a secure place in the intellectual pantheon even if she wasn't first to her ideas
(DIR) Post #AxR96zZf44ko7TIdxw by h4890@liberdon.com
2025-08-22T18:56:00Z
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@ChrisMayLA6 @nicholas @snarkweek @StingrayBadger Well, that is my problem. For me, there's nothing new. Just a repetition. So she certainly was a good PR/marketing woman bringing old ideas to people who otherwise would never have been exposed to them.