IrvingWashington posted:

Private landlords can never be reasonable, decent or evenhanded, despite the very best of intentions because of the power imbalance between them and their tenants. They ultimately decide if their tenant can continue to live in their home.

My current landlord is a pretty alright guy but if I'm ever in a position to need to complain, just to stand up for my legally protected rights, I still have to consider the fact that if I do so in a way that happens to upset him (for whatever reason, maybe he had a lovely day), he's capable of causing incredible stress and trauma for my entire family on a whim.

I had to consider exactly that last Friday, and then I had to explain it to my children. It's dehumanizing, deeply unpleasant, and entirely unavoidable. It's not reasonable that anybody should be made to feel that way. It's not decent that someone should earn income by putting people through situtations like that. It's absolutely not evenhanded, because that power dynamic overshadows every single interaction we have.

A landlord is either: someone who for whatever reason has not yet considered what it is like to live with the knowledge that your living situation is precarious and nonpermanent, or; someone who has considered that and decided to make money rather than avoid being part of that system. In the first case, putting my persuasive argument to them might well be to my benefit. In the second case, it's not likely because they've already made a value judgment.

In either case, I'm not putting my persuasive argument to them from an equal footing, because they are landlords and I am a tenant. I could make a wildly popular YouTube video that explains convincingly why being a landlord is immoral. Now 60% of the people who would have rented to me previously are no longer willing to, and I'm homeless again, except this time I've taken my family with me. It's hyperbolic, but only because I wouldn't want to risk putting my family in that position - not because it couldn't happen.

I can see how landlords might believe themselves to be reasonable and decent. I don't see how the system could possibly allow that to be the case.