If you do sign a lease with someone, and they haven't paid their rent, you should be able to throw their stuff out and change the locks as soon as their security deposit has run itself out.
I hear this and I think "You probably don't know what it's like to be in that situation."
It's often temporary, so a little flexibility fixes the problem.
But yes, sometimes you're right. You just phrased it in a bit of an inhumane way.
I agree with you. In practice, if I had a roommate who was genuinely going through some difficulties and needed 1-2 months to get back on his feet, I would help that person out. What really disturbs me is people taking advantage of the law, acting like they are entitled to free housing, and not showing gratitude/remorse for the predicament they have put others into. That's the kind of person I would want to change locks on, not the former.
Perhaps my wording was too strong, and I apologise for that.
Nah, it's more of... Nowadays, it seems like the problems in the world are increasing. Programmers are probably the most insulated from the effects, but even we are starting to feel them. On HN you'd get the impression everyone makes $300k and courts VCs, but the vast majority of the audience is more along the lines of mostly broke and quiet. I know because I've talked to them.
In that context, it's very important for us all to work together. And I've been trying to think of ways for us to do that. There must be something better than the rat race to the bottom, with a few survivors reaching the top by scrambling over the fallen.
It's not you. It's the society around us that coaxes us into thinking the way you expressed. It's a cartoon, a caricature of real life. Very few people wouldn't be embarrassed to be an imposition on others, or feel like trash for not being able to afford rent. We're all trying, hard.
But there are so many people now. And some people really aren't trying, and really do put others into weird predicaments.
It's hard to mentally separate the former from the latter.
> Very few people wouldn't be embarrassed to be an imposition on others
Your implication is that parasitic people have the same density among people who don't pay their rent as among the general population. This seems like an extraordinary claim in light of what we know about phenomenon like adverse selection.
I hear this and I think "You probably don't know what it's like to be in that situation."
It's often temporary, so a little flexibility fixes the problem.
But yes, sometimes you're right. You just phrased it in a bit of an inhumane way.