# Coronavirus Rent Strike **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 30, 2020, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705 "2020-03-30T21:50:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/41 "2020-04-03T03:11:04Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Yes, that would be nice. > > In the company I work for, it happened when the management staff unanimously signed a letter to the owners saying they’d resign en masse at the end of the fiscal year unless they sold the company to the employee association. > > For as long as you work for the company, you earn an increasingly larger stake. When you leave, you sell that stake back to the company so it can be distributed to the people who take your place. Hhave you never heard of an ESOP before? Yeah, I lost 19K when one ripped me off ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/42 "2020-04-03T12:13:54Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > Yeah, I lost 19K when one ripped me off I’m sorry to hear that. In my experience, that kind of thing happening is an outlier. A company that is owned by its employees and puts its profits towards improving their quality of life is in general far superior to one that uses the labor of its employees to enrich outside stockholders who do no work and reap all the benefits. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/43 "2020-04-03T15:01:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I’m sorry to hear that. In my experience, that kind of thing happening is an outlier. A company that is owned by its employees and puts its profits towards improving their quality of life is in general far superior to one that uses the labor of its employees to enrich outside stockholders who do no work and reap all the benefits. Except for all the work it took to raise the capital that they are investing/risking. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/44 "2020-04-03T15:06:12Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I think the employees should seize control and the business should be operated for their benefit rather than that of vulture capitalists. Yeah I’m sure that won’t put every retail and restaurant establishment out of business and 100% tank the economy at all… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/45 "2020-04-03T17:11:05Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I’m sorry to hear that. In my experience, that kind of thing happening is an outlier. A company that is owned by its employees and puts its profits towards improving their quality of life is in general far superior to one that uses the labor of its employees to enrich outside stockholders who do no work and reap all the benefits. Stockholder? In my state most rental property is owned by individuals or small, family-owned companies. Fuck them, I guess :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/46 "2020-04-03T18:03:57Z")
It’s a rent strike and not a Netflix strike, ‘cause Netflix is on autopay and thus a lot harder to stiff. Also, and of course, Netflix can cut off non-payers without needing a court procedure or involving the constabulary. That’s why a rent-strike is fairly rational: the landlords can’t do much about it at this time. That doesn’t make it just or ethical: the idea that in the end the burden of this crisis should fall on those who own rental properties is arbitrary, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/47 "2020-04-03T19:26:28Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > That’s the problem. Landlords _aren’t_ decent. They’re parasites who profit off the labor of the working class, and expect their revenue stream to remain constant regardless of whether there’s work to be had. **Moderator Warning** Keep political diatribes out of this forum, as well as professional jabs. This is and official warning. Don’t do this again. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/48 "2020-04-03T19:27:50Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I think the employees should seize control and the business should be operated for their benefit rather than that of vulture capitalists. This one is way out of line too. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/49 "2020-04-03T19:43:45Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > [Coronavirus rent strike: Advocates in major cities demand a waiver](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/30/coronavirus-rent-strike-advocates-major-cities-demand-waiver/5088716002/) > > \*\*Should real estate owners face the brunt of a rent strike for 90 days? > \*\* > Critics of the approach counter with… So many lies: . _You will lose your home, ruin your credit, and make it difficult to get any sort of decent housing in the future. A ‘rent strike’ isn’t going to liquidate capitalism and make you a homeowner, it’s going to demolish your credit and make you homeless."_ Look, until and when they actually start legal action, none of thise will happen. Yeah, your current landlord wont give you a rec, but so? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/50 "2020-04-03T19:50:06Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > We own and rent a duplex. Last year, after expenses, that duplex made $700. If one of our tenants misses one rent payment, we’re losing money on the place. > [@Chessic Sense](#): > > I find it weird that you contrast landlords with “regular people.” The difference between landlords and “regular people” is that the landlord has about a million dollars of assets to fall back on. After a year’s work as a landlord, paying expenses every month,you might only make $700. And your tenants might also, after a year’s work, and after paying expenses every month,only have $700 left in their savings account. But hey, it’s all the same,right?..you both have $700. If you get in financial trouble, you can sell the duplex. If your tenant gets in financial trouble, he can sell a kidney. Wait…don’t pile on yet. I know life ain’t fair, and some people are rich and some are poor, and that’s okay. But in the emergency we have now, things are going to get very,very very bad. Worse than 1929. It’s reasonable to ask the landlords to absorb some of the pain along with the unemployed “regular people”. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705/51 "2020-04-03T20:12:49Z")
“A million dollars of assets” != “A million dollars of liquid assets”. In today’s market, do you think anyone is gonna buy that duplex? Even if they want to, they don’t have the money. I doubt most landlords have all that much cash in the bank - and they still have to maintain those buildings, pay the mortgage, pay the taxes etc. And if they do want to sell it, they have to continue with those expenses in the interim. chappachula, yes, landlords should absorb some of the pain just as tenants do. But the landlord is not raking in the wealth the way you seem to believe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-rent-strike/850705.md?page=2)