the rent economy - most destructive scam from corporate america. and it's not just renting houses..

[fujiyamasan]

20. From a corporate perspective

monthly cash flow is somewhat predictable and steady income. The benefits for the software as a service model (for example with office 365) was never really for consumers. It was pitched for B2B because from the business customer perspective, SAAS also helped to lighten the IT infrastructure burden and it was shift from capex to opex (preferred by shareholders).

For the average consumer, the shift hasn’t been ideal. For Microsoft (or Adobe) it has helped combat piracy since they’re not dealing with key codes getting distributed with bootleg soft copies. No one ever paid attention to the “one physical copy installed per user machine” EULA anyways. People bought the software and installed it on as many computers they had. Now, if you’re not subscribed, you can’t use the software.

As for everything else (homes and cars in particular), leasing/renting became more common simply due to the large cost of the goods themselves. The next shift with cars is that even features will be a service, since more functions are software controlled. You want heated seats? Well that’ll be $x per month. You get the idea.

I’ve seen proposals to get private equity out of ownership. Good luck with that. I’ve rented homes in the past where even private landlords used an LLC. It’s easy to create a shell corp.

I don’t think the effort here should stop though. Large scale corporate ownership of single family homes is a major long term threat to home ownership in this country. It could also be politically smart for democrats to build a populist position on this. It’s especially problematic for mobile home parks.