re: 3 corporations now own 19,000 metro Atlanta homes

quote:

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What is the board’s take on this? Is this too much capitalism? Do yall advocate government intervention?

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There's a limit to everything and that limit frequently pops up at the threshold of a residential doorstep. The Supreme Court has frequently set common sense boundaries by citing to the notion that "the home is different". You can stand on the sidewalk in Washington DC chanting "abortion is murder" all day under the First Amendment but you can't stand outside someone's bedroom window at 3:00 AM doing the same thing because "the home is different". Police can perform all types of searches and seizures incident to arrest but they need a detailed warrant for your house because "the home is different". You can't just shoot someone in a bar when they threaten you, but it's a different ballgame when they break into your house in the middle of the night because "the home is different".

More regulation here is needed and appropriate because "the home is different". Now I would draw that line much further than things like home related commodities - for example building materials used to construct a home. If conglomerate homebuilders and their financiers want to negotiate sweetheart supply agreements for lumber, steel, concrete, fixtures, etc then that's fair capitalism. But monopolizing the land and stock is bad for society and against the very founding principles of this country.