My only comment on the landlord stuff is that there are landlords that are good, but they’re extremely rare. My landlord from college, whom I now consider to be a friend, and regularly keep up with, became a friend because he was an exceedingly great landlord.
He would regularly visit the property to check in, do the work around the place that needed to be done. Stuff like shoveling snow, cutting the grass, etc. He made sure everything was running correctly and there were no issues; if there was ever a problem he would address it right away and at the very least, give you a rough timeline on when things would be fixed.
You could call him 24/7 and he would drop whatever he was doing and head out to address any issue that needed immediate attention. He was lenient on payments, often foregoing first/last/security payments with little more than the commitment to pay by a certain date, which could be months into the future. We were students and sometimes our financial assistance didn’t come in exactly when we needed it, and we had to argue with our financial institution to get our cheques for the semester. He provided everything included in the rent, from heat/power to internet. Rent was reasonable and often under market value for what was provided. He was less concerned about making profit and more concerned with the house paying for itself, and running smoothly.
Before anyone has the chance to comment, this guy is a unicorn. I’m damned lucky to have rented from him. By no means does he represent even a fraction of 1% of landlords. He did everything in his power to ensure we were taken care of and that’s why I rented from him the entire time I was in college, and a few of my friends ended up moving into my student house over the course of my college career. I don’t expect to ever find another landlord that’s anywhere near his quality ever again. I’ve had the need to rent from others, because he doesn’t really have any units that served my needs later in life (and now I have a mortgage, so never again), and the difference is dramatic. Most landlords seems to do everything in their power to avoid taking responsibility, visiting the property, or have anything happen that doesn’t either sweep problems under the rug, or make it someone else’s problem. They just want their money, and damn everything else.
99.9% of landlords are garbage, and they deserve every ounce of hate towards them. They’ve worked hard at earning that hate and they get the hate that they have earned. I recognise that my experience with this one landlord does not and should not excuse any of that loathing that others feel about landlords in general and the vast majority are not worth the oxygen that they consume.
My entire point is that it’s not 100% of landlords that are shit. It’s damn close to 100% but it’s not. A very small fraction of a percent are actually good at what they do, and take issues seriously. They get involved in issues without hesitation and resolve problems quickly, without complaint. It is an extremely small number of them. My (now) friend who happens to also be a landlord is one such example. That being said, it’s not worth it to maintain an entire industry full of shit for the few that actually do things well and provide something valuable. So I’m still in favor of burning it all down and rebuilding from scratch. Temporary/rental living has a place in society for those who will be living in an area for a small amount of time (college/university is an easy example), but on the whole, ownership should be a painless experience, and it’s not. In no small part because of landlords buying up anything they can. Another contributing factor is house flippers, whom I consider to be a scourge to society, since so few of them do anything remotely correct. Many don’t do things that will even stand up to moderate use and buying from a flipper often results in having to have most of the work re-done correctly within a few years.
It’s a horrid part of society and should be abolished.
Dunno, not all agencies are shit either. I rented an apartment for 2 years through an agency and their fee was stupid high where I live, sure, but they took care of all the issues we had, they called the technicians for reparations and if the technicians said that stuff broke because it was old or it was faulty, the landlord had to pay it. 100% of our issues were like that. When we left, the landlord returned us all the deposit the day before the agency came to check how the house was (it was clean ofc).
Iirc the landlord bought the house as a future investment for his kids, so we had the best renting experience for me at least. I live in a small european city with high prices so the experience will differ wildly from other places, even in other neighbourhoods of my city lmao
I get what you’re saying. I rented from a large organization in my former city (they own something like 60 or 70% of the highrise rental buildings in the city), and we had an excellent experience with few exceptions; but our esperience was largely due to our superintendents. They were always prompt, punctual, and attentive to anything that needed attention. That was their job, and bluntly, they did it well.
I’ve heard stories from other people who have rented from the same company but for different properties who have had dramatically different experiences. The difference came down to who was managing the property, not who owned it. The corporation that owned it just pushed all the responsibility onto the super, and collected their money every month, not giving a shit about anything. We were good tenants and paid promptly every month without fail, so we never had an issue. The super also did me some really big favors while we were in the process of vacating the premise. We got out on time, but barely. I called in a handful of favors to get it done, but it got done. The super was being pressured by the corp who owned the building to get us out before a specific date/time (IIRC, 5PM on the friday before the last day of the month) - however, legally, we technically had posession of the unit until 11:59 PM (23:59) on the last day of the month, because that’s what we paid for.
There was some discussion on this and the super got involved, and examined the situation (we were on good terms due to our history and repoire), and knew that the companies expectations of us being out by friday at 5 wasn’t going to happen. They basically ran interference to ensure we had whatever time we needed, within the confines of the law, to get the job done, and wrap up as expected. At the end of the day, we were all happy with the outcome (both the landlord and myself and SO)… though, I believe they’re no longer the superintendents there, and I’m not sure if that’s related or not.
Simply put, they’re little more than employees. The company wants what they want, and the corporation that owns the building is a cold unfeeling bastard who can only be diciplined by major legal action (which bluntly, most people who need to rent, can’t afford to go against the legal firm that the corporation literally owns).
to give some context, I work I.T. and had occasion to work for their corporate HQ (my employer got some contract work), when the moved to a new building. Through that, I got some serious insight into the company, and they have entire floors set up for legal, property management, and even a fucking bank. This corporation is their own bank, legal team, and everything. it’s staggering to think how large they need to be before simply buying a bank and a law firm is cheaper than hiring an independent company to handle that. It’s mind boggling.
If they were to go out of business tomorrow, I wouldn’t mind though. I attribute 100% of the positives of that experience to the superintendents we had. I would have liked for them to own the building far more than that heartless corporation.
I have a small house I purchased in a neighborhood full of renters. I bought during the low interest pandemic times, too, so my mortgage is less than most people’s rent. If I won the lottery tomorrow I would definitely sell my house for a better one (I make about 30% more now than when I bought, and the only reason I won’t move now is because of the interest rate). So many people have told me that I need to rent this place out rather than sell it. But I don’t have the ability to be the kind of landlord you described and therefore I know I shouldn’t be a landlord at all.
So many people have told me that I need to rent this place out rather than sell it. But I don’t have the ability to be the kind of landlord you described and therefore I know I shouldn’t be a landlord at all.
You don’t need to be a “unicorn”, just be a “good horse”.
Treat your renters decently, and take care of issues as they come up.
Make it illegal for any corporation to own residential property.
all properties beyond your first property, you pay an additional 10% sales and property taxes per property above 1. This means you pay 110% for your second, 120% for your third, 200% for your 11th, and so on.
Lack of housing means that you have to bid more than anyone else in your area was offering, including greedy wannabe landlords who watched an episode of Homes Under the Hammer and think it’s easy money. When I bought my house, I tried haggling down. Now they’re haggling up. Even if the landlords weren’t an issue, you’d still be competing with all the 30-something couples in your area desperate to get their feet on the housing ladder.
Insanely low interest rates has lulled people into the idea that the crazy prices “aren’t that much” when paid back over 30-40 years. Rising interest rates would fuck a lot of people over who suddenly find their wages going up by 10%, but their mortgage payments going up by 100%. Plus who wants to still be paying off their house when they’re pushing 70? Fuck that noise.
Governments and local government need to step in and provide housing at reasonable rents. The glorious free markets have had housing for too long and fucked it right up.
The US got the brunt of that particular crisis. The UK didn’t seem quite as bad, although I did notice you needed a much larger deposit after that. Pre subprime-crisis they were cheerfully handing out 110% mortgages, which in retrospect was fucking mental.
For the first few, but there is a point at which it stops being feasible. “Hi, I’m interested in your one bedroom in Bumfuck, ID, how much is rent?” “Well, I own 17 properties so it’s $93,000 a month.”
There are three reasons that “good landlords” seem to be scarce:
People tend to be more vocal about bad experiences than good, so we’ll definitely hear more about the bad ones
Many people decided to become a landlord because it outpaced other “investments” greatly, especially if you’re a shitty landlord who doesn’t put profit back into maintaining said “investment”
Many of the good landlords that did exist and weren’t gouging eventually got hit with a bad tenant that cost them a lot of suffering and $$$ while being extremely difficult to evict. Whether it’s true or not, I still hear current ones who say they’re charging [crazy amount] to pad for the eventual $20k bill when a bad tenant wrecks their place (and these days it’s not hard to do $20k+ in damage)
Also per the comic: I’ve never heard of anyone tipping a landlord, good or bad
Milk is only ever useful during your very first few years of your life after birth, after that, though, it doesn’t do much. Add that to the fact that quite a bit of folks are lactose intolerant, and also the fact that I just dislike the taste of milk. That’s all.
Sugar, mainly. Oatly adds amylase to their mix which breaks down the oat starch into maltose, a type of sugar. While that is happening naturally during the digestive process since our saliva contains amylase, it doesn’t happen in that amount, which means Oatly has significantly more sugar than natural oat milk. Maltose also has a glycemic index of 105, which means that it raises blood sugar level more rapidly than even pure glucose. For reference, cane sugar has a GI of 60, lactose of 46. This means the sugar level of Oatly is effectively higher than Coca-Cola’s.
If it’s creamy, it’s likely processed. Natural oat milk is quite watery. But just a shot in your coffee isn’t worth worrying about anyway. It’s just that many advertise it as a healthy, daily drink and for that, it has too much sugar.
Are there actual cost increases for landlords that justifies them charging so much more on rents now, or is it solely based on “market prices”? I imagine taxes increase, maybe insurance, their own mortgage may fluctuate, and then you have things just breaking down in a house on a regular basis, so imagine they do need to pad the rent a little bit just to cover additional costs, but current prices seem excessive. To me it just seems like price gouging, but I’m not a landlord, so I don’t know what goes into it.
The big thing is pricing in an eviction moratorium, it’s going to be a while before landlords are ok with thinking the government won’t remove their recourse for unpaid rent.
The big thing is that they all use a piece of software to create a cartel. The rent prices in the US are being artificially inflated by companies like Zillow that chart all the “comps” in an area. A “comp” is a completed sale. The thing is that they can buy a property at 120-300% of actual value in the area to create a “comp” that artificially inflates the “value” of all the other properties in the area, thereby allowing their property management division to jack up rents, which since they all share what they are charging jacks up all the other rents in the area.
Some provide actual value by working as a superintendent for the properties they own, most simply hire a management company and pass the costs onto the tenants.
Traveling the world spending hundreds of thousands is great and all, but have you tried exploring everything about your community? I find it far more rewarding to invest my time into my own community and learning about others that are my neighbors. My community has a wealth of people and experiences and going through that is way nicer instead of not even scratching the surface of other countries people and cultures.
That’s why people that make videos like this tend to come off as so superficial. They never really take the time to get to know someone and invest in their life. They go, see and take what they want, and leave feeling like they’re profound and found the meaning to life.
Depends on where you live. My community really sucks (Terre Haute, Indiana), but I do a lot of regional exploration. You don’t have to travel all that far, maybe a day at most, to find new and interesting things.
Depends on you. My community sucks but I enjoy gardening, grafting, hiking, hunting for delicious mushrooms, bird watching, boating and building stuff. Not to mention flying and fishing.
I don’t really like most of that, but I do like exploring diverse cultures. And I can do that if I just drive a little. Which is a hell of a lot cheaper than backpacking through Europe.
Does Terre Haute still have that smell? Been a while since I’ve been there but when my wife was in school at ISU, I distinctly remember that funk of the wind was blowing right.
Thankfully, no. The paper plant closed down. Instead we now have a performance space that hosted Ted Nugent a couple of months ago. And we’re getting a casino for some reason.
Depends on where in Indiana. We grew up in Bloomington and have many friends there and it’s a decent town overall, even though it’s in Indiana, so we’d love to move there. We can’t afford a house there, but it’s a nice dream.
True, I’m also in a really diverse city within the blue state so I have access to so many cultures within my region. I can go to open events at a mosque or even at events hosted by the local synagogue or local Pakistanis or local Indians or local Chinese. So many cultures, it’s really nice and I’m very lucky.
Sure, but even in Texas, you can drive to either Mexico or a bluer state within a day and experience more culture. And Alaska has all the indigenous culture to explore.
They also only ever go to Europe. Nobody that wants profound life changing experiences goes to Europe other than to put it on as a badge of honor that they did.
Traveling through places like Lybia or Cambodia you are seen as some sort of humanitarian, whereas if you travel through Germany or France, you are getting a life changing experience… If you really want a life changing experience, get a minimum wage job.
Nah, SEA is the new hotness for “life change” tourism
Still pretty up and coming though since the infrastructure isn’t as well built out and foreign language accomodation isn’t as present outside of the already touristy areas, but when has the reality of a situation ever stopped a trust fund baby before?
I think there’s still validity to globe trotting though, living international experiences will genuinely lead to better matured people, and serves as a pretty solid means of cultural diffusion, especially music and cuisine.
As for minimum wage work, I think that’s best handled by adopting those laws Aus did specifically criminalizing karen tantrums.
It’s interesting to look up the tourist things in your local area and do a day trip around home - perhaps I’m spoilt though, living in a federal capital with plenty of national things
On the left you see a format popular on tiktok, where a clip from a videogame, some ice cream video and a Family Guy clip share the screen, playing simultaneously.
On the right you see a news anchor with weather info, a ticker and stock data also sharing the same screen.
The tiktok format is supposedly for low attention span kids which (also supposedly) need three completely disconnected things happening on screen at once in order to not lose interest in the video. The other one is… the news as it is common in the US.
“They are the same”: you could say that both of these formats serve the same purpose.
It’s not the same, TikTok is shit content crammed into a very small box where as the bullshit on Fox and whatever else is bullshit crammed into a much bigger box.
Yeah they’re both fucking trash but they don’t have the same impact over a long term, but go off I guess
You should see the Japanese TV then. It’s not only cramped, it’s completely different programs at the same time. I don’t even know what the reaction clips are reacting to or which is the main program.
This would only be the 24 hour “news” networks that deliver entertainment and opinion under the guise of factual information. Local newscasts don’t often do this. However there are some ownership groups out there that try to model themselves after the big cable companies.
Just so you’re aware, the TV broadcast is (Canadian) CP24 Toronto, and they have this so that you don’t have to wait through commercials and other random news segments to get weather, traffic, headlines and stock tickers. This is a common channel to have on in waiting rooms and the like.
On the left side of the image, you will notice a prevalent format that has gained popularity on TikTok. It features a composition where a brief snippet from a video game, a delightful ice cream video, and a scene from the animated television series Family Guy coexist on the same screen, all playing simultaneously.
Conversely, on the right side of the meme, you’ll find a news anchor delivering weather information, a continuous news ticker displaying various updates, and real-time stock market data, all competing for space on the same screen.
The TikTok format on the left is believed to cater to individuals with relatively shorter attention spans, particularly younger viewers, who supposedly require the simultaneous presence of three entirely unrelated elements on screen to maintain their engagement with the video content. On the other hand, the right-side depiction represents a quintessential depiction of the news presentation format that is commonly seen in the United States.
The phrase “They are the same” is a humorous commentary on the meme, suggesting that both of these seemingly disparate formats ultimately serve a similar purpose, albeit in very different contexts.
For those who might still be grappling with comprehension:
On the leftward portion of the provided image, observers can discern a particularly prominent format that has seen a meteoric rise in its acceptance and widespread use, especially on the social media platform known as TikTok. This format encompasses a unique assemblage wherein a fleeting segment extracted from a video game, a visually captivating video that showcases the delightful intricacies of ice cream preparation, and a notable moment extracted from the well-known animated television show, “Family Guy,” are all juxtaposed to appear concurrently on a singular display screen, thereby playing in unison.
In stark contrast, if one directs their attention to the rightward section of the meme, it becomes apparent that there’s a news anchor, immersed in the task of conveying meteorological updates. Accompanying this, there is an unbroken stream of a news ticker, diligently broadcasting a plethora of diverse news highlights. Additionally, there is a live feed that presents the ever-fluctuating dynamics of the stock market, with all these elements vying for visual dominance within the same confined screen space.
The format emblematic of TikTok, situated on the left, is postulated to resonate more with individuals possessing attention spans that might be characterized as being on the shorter end of the spectrum. This is especially true for the younger demographic, who, it’s hypothesized, necessitate the concurrent exhibition of three wholly unrelated visual stimuli to sustain their levels of engagement and immersion in the digital content being consumed. Conversely, the representation on the right encapsulates the archetypal portrayal of how news is traditionally presented, a style that has become somewhat of a hallmark in the realm of American broadcasting.
The overlaying text, which reads “They are the same,” provides a tongue-in-cheek commentary, insinuating that, despite their apparent differences in presentation and context, these two formats converge in their overarching intent and purpose, each catering to the specific needs of their respective audiences, albeit in divergent manners.
For those who, perchance, remain ensnared in a web of puzzlement and seek further elucidation:
Upon the immediate leftward expanse of the visually rendered image in question, astute onlookers and discerning individuals would undoubtedly identify a distinctive, yet increasingly ubiquitous format that has, with the relentless passage of time, surged forward, embedding itself deeply into the cultural zeitgeist, primarily through its proliferation on the digital social media behemoth known as TikTok. This inimitable format is a testament to the modern era’s digital craftsmanship, where it harmoniously amalgamates a transient and ephemeral segment meticulously plucked from an interactive video game, an exquisitely framed visual documentation that indulges viewers in the delectable journey of ice cream artistry, and a poignant, perhaps even evocative, fragment extracted from the annals of the widely recognized and critically acclaimed animated television chronicle, “Family Guy.” Astonishingly, all these disparate elements coalesce, seamlessly cohabitating the very same digital canvas, and serendipitously unfold in synchronized harmony.
Yet, if one were to meander their gaze, redirecting their ocular faculties towards the diametrically opposite side, specifically the rightward flank of this meme-centric artifact, a starkly contrasting tableau emerges. Herein, a seasoned news anchor, donned in professional attire, appears deeply engrossed in the solemn act of disseminating pivotal meteorological prognostications. In tandem, and perhaps adding to the sensory overload, a ceaseless and inexorable news ticker cascades downwards, acting as a conduit for a veritable cornucopia of timely news briefings. Augmenting this already bustling visual cacophony is a real-time, dynamic representation of the financial market’s pulse, showcasing the capricious ebbs and flows of stock indices, all of which jostle, compete, and clamor for the viewer’s fleeting attention within the confines of a singular, constrained screen territory.
The quintessentially TikTok-esque tableau, which graces the image’s left hemisphere, is conjectured, hypothesized, and postulated to resonate profoundly with those individuals whose cognitive proclivities lean towards possessing what might colloquially be described as abbreviated attention durations. This observation rings particularly true for the more nascent generational cohorts, who, as prevailing societal narratives suggest, ostensibly require an intricate ballet of simultaneous, non-correlated visual stimuli to perpetually fuel and stoke the fires of their engagement and sustained interest in the ocean of digital content they so voraciously consume. In juxtaposition, the tableau on the right harks back to and encapsulates a time-honored, venerable modality of news dissemination, a paradigmatic archetype that has entrenched itself as an emblematic mainstay within the bastions of American televisual broadcast traditions.
The superimposed inscription, which succinctly proclaims “They are the same,” injects a dose of sardonic wit, playfully insinuating that, beneath the veneer of their ostensible disparities in thematic content and contextual backdrops, these two visual formats, in their essence, might indeed be converging upon a singular, unifying teleological nexus, each meticulously tailored to satiate the nuanced appetites of their distinct viewership, albeit via markedly divergent stylistic avenues.
I just said “Can you rewrite this passage to be even more verbose? {your comment}” for the first one and then “Can you make it even more verbose? I’m going for excess levels of verbosity” for the second one. The very first line
For those who, perchance, remain ensnared in a web of puzzlement and seek further elucidation:
I feel like I’m way more impressed by this than I should be, like you’re a wizard or something even though it’s probably just some simple prompt. I think it’s because you went to the effort to learn this, then it came up for the perfect use in this comment. Also im way too lazy to learn something like that so I think that’s part of why im so impressed. Anyway im on the internet so I thought I’d waste the time of anyone who’s reading this by typing some extra words. But I’ve genuinely never seen this before so it’s actually made a truely awful day much better.
I’m really tempted to make this an actual keyboard on my phone, and just have the corresponding letters in their normal place so I could still type quickly. That’d be a fun keyboard
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