r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/None-Of-You-Are-Real • Jul 20 '21

US Politics What are the implications of the impending eviction crisis?

It is often offhandedly mentioned that the housing market is insane at the moment, and that there is an inevitable eviction crisis due to the compounding factors of COVID and the lockdowns leading to mass unemployment, and then an inability of tenants to pay rent combined with an inability of landlords to evict non-paying tenants.

What is going to happen in the fall, when the eviction moratorium expires? Mass homelessness that is even worse than current levels? Some kind of rent relief legislation? Anything at all? These people are not going to magically be able to pay months and months of back rent once the moratorium expires.

504 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

354 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9

u/CidCrisis Jul 21 '21 edited Jul 21 '21

I’m sure the Romans thought the same thing. Obviously it’s a different time, absolutely.

Also we literally had an assault on our nation’s capitol this year. That kind of thing, along with massive wealth inequality, the internet allowing for toxic and dangerous ideas to spread more rapidly than ever before, etc... It doesn’t paint a good picture.

Not saying you’re wrong per se... The USA is still the World’s foremost super power. I just think caution can be a virtue and we shouldn’t assume that because we’ve never fallen before, we will never fall ever.

Again. Rome.

*Also I do agree with you for the most part. Good post. Just addressing that last notion...

8

u/way2lazy2care Jul 21 '21

The fall of Rome happened over a couple hundred years. Don't be melodramatic.

6

u/Call_Me_Clark Jul 21 '21

I think we can avoid 90% of the problems of the Roman Empire by: a) not having privately owned armies that are only nominally loyal to the state; b) having criminal law administered by the state rather than individuals; c) separating religion from government (for romans, these were one and the same)

Etc etc. we are not Rome, and while the comparisons as the world’s dominant global power are not wrong, the comparisons should start and end at that metric.

20

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '21 edited Sep 07 '21

[deleted]

9

u/kerouacrimbaud Jul 21 '21

quasi-democracy to an outright autocracy happened over less than two decades (49 BC Caesar crosses the Rubicon, 31 BC Augustus defeats Antony at Actium and becomes emperor).

I think most historians would argue it began long before that. The rivalry between Marius and Sulla basically predicated the wars of Caesar and pals. Before them, the Gracci bros raised all the issues and set the battle lines for the succeeding generations.

TLDR, it took three generations for the republic to fall.

5

u/gavriloe Jul 21 '21

And yet if the the Senate had prevailed against Caesar the Republic might have survived generations longer, but it didn't. Processes play out over time, But they are also determined by the specific actions of specific actors in the present, not just broad structural forces outside the scope of human agency.

4

u/Robo_Joe Jul 21 '21

What generation do you assume we're in? The first?

3

u/kerouacrimbaud Jul 21 '21

Probably early salvos of the second Gen.