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[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 156 points 1 year ago

"Landlords deserve tons of money for no effort because they take on the risks of homeownership"

Landlords when that risk manifests:

[-] ech@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago

Not that it stops this guy from being a pos idiot, but he did say "any amount". Your critique would fit if he were complaining about local FD "not doing their job" or something.

[-] Infynis@midwest.social 54 points 1 year ago

The point of the post is that he claimed he doesn't pay taxes for services that, if they were more robust, could have prevented this desperate, hilarious tweet.

[-] ech@lemm.ee 29 points 1 year ago

He (incorrectly) thinks he can buy his way out of it when it matters. And I have no sympathy for him, fwiw. If it was just his house burning, I'd bring popcorn.

[-] frezik@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago

Which is hilarious before we even get to that step. Real estate is one thing where, to make money, you don't need to be intelligent or a risk taker or even have a lot of up front capital. You mostly need to have flexible ethics and the rest will work out.

[-] Darkard@lemmy.world 133 points 1 year ago

We laugh, but his follow up will be "see! You all paid taxes and your houses still burned down! Proof that the socialist experiment failed!"

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 32 points 1 year ago

And they didn’t tax the fossil fuel industry that can shoulder a lot of the responsibility for this. In fact, they heavily subsidised it.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And my follow up will be: I could not care less about what this person thinks.

[-] mynameisigglepiggle@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Oh I am all about 1%'er schadenfreude

[-] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 122 points 1 year ago

will pay any amount

No, he won't. He will promise any amount and pay half of that to a lawyer to weasel out with some bullshit legalese.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago

Obviously in true ancap fashion, he'll need to put the agreed payment in multisig escrow up front. Only an outlaw would refuse!

[-] Gork@lemm.ee 85 points 1 year ago

Any amount, you say?

Even more than what it would cost in taxes?

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago

Free market, baby! The goal is to make things cost everything that someone has. Bankruptcy for everyone!

[-] Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

Call Crassus!

[-] mothar@lemmings.world 59 points 1 year ago

Kinda ironic that the dude is called Wassermann which literally translates to waterman in german.

[-] banghida@lemm.ee 56 points 1 year ago

I wonder if it is even real.

[-] TrendigOsthyvel@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago

Multiple sources claim so.

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 year ago

Would not be surprising and hilarious if true.

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[-] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 52 points 1 year ago

Ironic that his name is "water man"

[-] Senseless@feddit.org 8 points 1 year ago

Hey Keith, need some water, man?

[-] supermurs@lemm.ee 43 points 1 year ago

I didn't know private firefighters are even a thing.

[-] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 65 points 1 year ago

In the land of the free, the goal is to privatize everything.

[-] Gork@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago

Land of the ~~free~~ fee

[-] Notyou@sopuli.xyz 41 points 1 year ago

That is one of the ways Marcus Crassus got rich in Rome.

The first ever Roman fire brigade was created by Crassus. Fires were almost a daily occurrence in Rome, and Crassus took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a miserable price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire; if the owner refused, then they would simply let the structure burn to the ground. After buying many properties this way, he rebuilt them, and often leased the properties to their original owners or new tenants.>

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

He did pay for his greed. When he failed in his campaign in Parthia, the parthians put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat.

[-] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Guillotines are out. Molten gold cleanses are IN.

[-] MuffinHeeler@aussie.zone 7 points 1 year ago

It's completely natural and organic too

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[-] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Cyberpunk Dystopian before Cyberpunk was even a genre

[-] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

🎶same as it ever was, same as it ever was...🎶

[-] VoteNixon2016@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 year ago

Caesarpunk? Circensespunk? Idk what to call it, but I want cyberpunk-but-ancient-Rome to exist as a genre

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago
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[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

I've never heard of them in the modern day, but I know that's how fire brigades started in the UK

[-] Denjin@lemmings.world 26 points 1 year ago

Correct, it's also the birth of insurance. People would pay a subscription style fee to the fire brigade so their house would be protected in case of a fire.

It's something satirised in The Colour of Magic, the first Discworld novel.

[-] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Precisely.

There'd be fire markers on the outer walls to indicate which fire protection company covered that building and whichever firefighter turned up would bill that fire protection company who'd then bill the customer/customer's insurance company.

Edit: typo, damn these supposedly opposable thumbs!

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[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

There was a Roman who was rich because of private fire fighters, Crassus. Being the richest person in Rome's history, it will no doubt come as a shock when history shows he was instrumental in turning the Republic into the Roman Empire.

The cycle continues. Democracy will die because the rich hoard the power and money speaks loudest when it is accepted speech.

[-] Xanthrax@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I've never seen one in the US, and upon further research, they don't really exist.

All that being said, if you're rich, you're more likely to have a firebreak created for you by landscapers. The city also creates firebreaks surrounding neighborhoods like the palisades.

[-] Hildegarde@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

There are private fire departments. They are owned by companies that own industrial facilities with high fire risk, that need immediate response, such as oil refineries, chemical plants, and and factories.

But you're right that there aren't private fire companies to serve anyone on demand. There are no manned fire trucks in LA waiting for a high enough bidder to respond to the fire.

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

No taxes, no fire service.

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[-] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 year ago

This is how Crassus got rich. When a house burned, he'd show up with his firefighters, and then buy the house for an insultingly low price, because, well, the house was on fire. Then his firefighters would put the fire out.

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[-] Alpha71@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

And, insurance companies cancelled fire coverage before the fire.

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[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago

Lessons learned

We hired a property management company, but eventually took it in-house. “That was a really big mistake,” Wasserman recounts. “ My wife and I were going up on weekends to rent units. We don’t really speak Spanish so we often relied on Google Translate to speak with potential tenants. We quickly realized that we weren’t the right people to manage those properties so we eventually sold those assets, too.”

Bakersfield taught them some important lessons:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250109184023/https://www.geltventurepartners.com/article/bakersfield-to-billions-gelts-keith-wasserman-gets-results

[-] Anissem@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago

Oh how the turntables…

[-] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You see, the trick to not having leopards eat your face is in fact to intentionally starve them, and then brag about it publically!

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this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
818 points (98.8% liked)

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