Re:VCs are financing an economy of servants
by MichaelZuo on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:13PM
(#28121788)
The problem is that in any sizeable population there will be bad apples that impose asymmetrically costly problems.
Because cause and effect can have a non linear relationship in the real world.
People aren’t going to accept having their rent go up 20% next month because a bad apple wrecked some common shared stuff that is peculiarly difficult to restore. People by and large don’t accept non-linear effects when it impacts their wallet negatively.
Thus in fact there is never enough money to repair everything.
Society at large gets around the issue by reserving very harsh punishments in such circumstances, though even now that is declining in frequency nowadays. Rental management do not have any punishment authority beyond taking away a security deposit, if that.
Management gets thousands of dollars every month from each renter. They could absolutely fix it if they wanted to. In this market, they don't get punished for not fixing it, so they let it go and pocket the difference.
Normally I'd be with you here. It's gross what some people think is acceptable in common spaces. Slumlording is also pretty gross, though, and I tend to think it's the larger evil here. By a considerable margin, too.