As our own Doug Powers reported in a VIP post on Saturday, New York City DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo had a hard time trying to sell the warmth of collectivism to Fox News' Martha MacCallum. Gordillo told MacCallum that landlords in New York City have been making a 12 percent return on their investment. When MacCallum asked him what was fair, Gordillo answered that the DSA didn't think that anyone should have a constitutional right to double-digit returns on their investment.
Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt weighed in.
When the rent is too damn high it’s easy to hate the landlord making money off you. But when you’re a renter…you never have to make a repair, you never have to sock away $100K in cash for a down payment, and if your place burns down, you can just walk away.
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) July 19, 2026
Before you bitch…
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… about landlords, ask yourself: could you save up $100K right now to make a down payment? What about $10K repair when a pipe bursts? Or your government leaves 50 years of brush to BURN YOUR CITY DOWN? These are all things a property owner has to deal with. Risk, liability, maintenance, taxes, loss of liquidity, ever-increasing insurance costs, and no ability to evict someone who stops paying rent. Landlords earn maybe 5-12% margins off your rent. Consider it a tip for doing all the hard stuff of home ownership for you.
Ashley Luna didn't take long to ask herself those questions before she started bitching.
Renters ARE the ones paying for those repairs, the property tax, the mortgage, etc. because the landlord uses our rent money to pay those things.
— Ashley Luna (@RealAshleyLuna) July 19, 2026
If being a landlord is soooo hard, they have the freedom to sell the property. The reason we can’t save $100K is because we’re…
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The post continues:
… shelling it out to the landlords. Landlords bitching about being a landlord is something else. You know it’s your CHOICE to be a landlord, right? For renters, who are blocked from building equity & having meaningful savings, we do not have the same power to choose homeownership.
Landlords are why people like you aren’t living in a tent somewhere. Have some appreciation 🙄
— Mark 🥓 🥓 (@PitmasterMark69) July 20, 2026
Landlords, landlord hoarding & charging high rent is the reason why the housing supply is low, costs are inflated & it’s difficult for renters to save money for a DP.
— Ashley Luna (@RealAshleyLuna) July 20, 2026
I’m the reason why the landlord doesn’t have to get a real job to cover his personal expenses or lifestyle. Did…
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… u ever thank a renter once?
Thank you for paying the rent you agreed to pay when you signed the lease.
Do you want housing costs to go up even more? Because making it impossible for landlords to make a profit is how you strangle the supply of housing and cause costs to explode.
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) July 19, 2026
Become a landlord and charge nothing because you are so generous or keep renting and shut your mouth.
— Trump is Our President (@JFleckenAlvarez) July 20, 2026
There quite costly items you didn’t mention:
— Sky Garner (@sky57124) July 20, 2026
What you’re not aware of is the cost of the legalities to own and rent property. There’s a tremendous cost to vet the renter, pay real estate licensing, pay attorneys fees, keep up with real estate laws that are ever changing.
I was a landlord for 5 years. It sucked! You have no idea what you’re talking about.
— Patriotten (@MarshaLVW) July 19, 2026
I've both rented and owned in my life and have never had the experience of being "blocked from building equity & having meaningful savings".
— Blujay (@Blujay38006242) July 20, 2026
To see how twisted your thought process is, consider how almost every property owner was once a renter. Very very very very few people these days are born with titled real estate to their names.
— bruce chou (@doctorchou) July 19, 2026
So you want to use the landlord’s capital to provide yourself housing, but they shouldn’t get a market rate return on their capital and the risk they take.
— serenitynowhere (@serenitynowhere) July 19, 2026
I rented an apartment when I was starting off, and then I bought a house after I got married. What you’re saying is hard or impossible to do is, in fact, done by almost everybody who eventually buys a house.
— Tim Hamilton (@TSHamiltonAstro) July 20, 2026
Rental units serve two people: landlords, who assume risk and invest their hard earned money for the chance to make a profit, and tenants, who get a place to live without any risk or major capital investment.
— Nathan Speth (@Speth27) July 20, 2026
Take profit away from risk takers, rentals disappear & rent goes up.
So buy a rental property and remove the middle man. No one is stopping you.
— CheetoBath (@CheetoBath) July 20, 2026
Are you a homeowner and do you rent to tenants in California, Ashley? Curious about your personal experience being on the ownership side of things.
— VisionQuestress (@VisionQuestress) July 19, 2026
And without someone willing to rent out their property, an increasingly dicey proposition because of vermin like you, there is nowhere to rent without shelling out a shit ton of money up front. You communist losers can never see the cascading effects of your actions.
— Lady Hecate 🇺🇲 (@hecate40) July 20, 2026
Did you not understand what Spencer Pratt said? The landlord assumes the risk. Sometimes that risk would mean a loss due to bad tenants, a disaster, or collapse in the market. So when they do make money, it has to be worth their while. Otherwise, who would go through the trouble?
— Ruthless Truth (@RuthlessRuthDV) July 19, 2026
What an asinine take. Renters carry ZERO liability while landlords are the ones that take on risk. It’s as simple as that.
— Jean (@queens_parents) July 20, 2026
Get a better job/source of income and then you can be an owner, not a renter.
— Thomas Dahlgren (@Alias4ThomasD) July 20, 2026
Maybe move somewhere else.
Whatever. Just stop being a victim of your own decisions.
So shut down all rental properties. No more rentals, no more rents, no more landlords. What's your next move?
— davev (@davevivi) July 20, 2026
Luna did her best to respond to every reply, but we think she gave up after a couple of hundred people piled on.
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