Taxes are, in the case of a country like the United States, a legally sanctioned, representative approved (indirectly voter approved) means of supporting the needs of the nation/state as a whole.
Theft is distinguished from say, gifting money by consent. In a democracy mechanisms exist for our representatives to make decisions according to the consent of the people, to an extent.
You presumably live in a democracy so you presumably necessarily agree to abide by the laws of your nation which involve being governed by your democratically elected representatives.
The article seems mostly about noticing a fun coincidence backed by anecdotal evidence, except I’m currently going through the same thing, so I’m lending the theory more weight. (The elevators were always fine; now, two years later, they’re constantly out, and the garage door is busted for the first time.)
My thought was that it could plausibly be that renting goes in cycles: the building is desperate for renters, so they fix everything, advertise, and so on. Then, once they’re full, the company cuts costs by reducing maintenance. Then they lose renters, and the cycle continues.
However, I then thought about my last two buildings, which were cheaper, and things were just broken right from the start, so… who knows.
I can see the greater complex-wide cycle argument for complex wide amenities, leasing office support, and maintenance request response/resolution times.
Everyone moves out, so the above issues become a higher priority until units are backfilled. Since units are filled, the above issues become less important (to the owners at least, not the renters). Then renters receive this worse service, start moving out in waves, and the cycle continues.
The mold, and in-unit plumbing, and insect issues seem more like routine maintenance types of things to me. But compounded slightly by longer maintenance request response/resolution times.
The author uses how models are suggested to be used "the rails way" as an example for why it doesn't work anymore, talking about business logic in the models.
But in every framework I've used, the suggested way isn't how a technology is used in reality, in production. The tutorials are almost like a different framework entirely. Years ago as an Android dev the difference was shocking between what tutorials taught you and what was done in practice.
This doesn't technically detract from the author's point but it makes it moot - you just build in the current best practice way or the way that suits your needs, and that's how it often is with languages and frameworks.
Maybe that mismatch between how people are taught initially, or how the framework is intended to be used, is an inefficiency, in which case those who design frameworks should take note.
In the case of Rails I think "the rails way" is appropriate for certain style of apps, and not so much for Shopify etc scale apps.
Imagine you bought a house from HomeCorp but if you want to buy furniture or anything else that goes in your house, food, toilet paper, etc, it has to be from HomeCorp, and they take a huge cut.
Furniture prices will be higher. You can expect everything that goes in your house to cost more.
If you find a cool couch from IKEA, you can't put it in your house. You're not allowed because HomeCorp says so.
There's no reason why IKEA can't just ship you a couch but HomeCorp says they haven't tested it so they don't know if it meets their standards. But they don't even LET YOU make your own decision about what goes in your house.
IKEA could technically build their own house selling operation but that's a massive undertaking and is incredibly expensive.
Not only that but homes built by HomeCorp have all these features that suck unless you use HomeCorp for other things like your car, or your job. Your car just works a little less well if it's not a HomeCorp car - but only if you have a HomeCorp house, otherwise it's totally fine.
If your friends don't have a HomeCorp house it's clunkier to have them over, they have to jump through hoops or get a worse experience. They can't send you videos in high definition. Because HomeCorp wants them to have a house from them.
... Honestly I just convinced myself. They make it so inconvenient to use any other option that you're strongly pressured to use them. Then because you are, they force decisions on you that you might not want, and take a massive cut of money. It's all shady business practices that are incredibly unfair and result in less economic freedom.
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