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thetwelth2018 t1_ism8c6c wrote

Reply to comment by nowyourdoingit in What would happen if there was just a city-wide rent strike? Like eventually it would end up in court obviously but if everyone collectively stopped paying rent, the renters would get bargaining leverage back before all the evictions came. Seems like it could be a worthwhile experiment. by Bluehorsesho3

Debtors prisons are illegal in the US. The likely outcome would be the government declaring a national emergency and allowing people to stay in place without paying rents. But private landlords would not be incentivized to maintain a basic level of service and could possibly try to destroy their buildings to collect on property insurance a la the Bronx is burning a few decades ago. An alternative could be public confiscation of these properties but then you have NYC as your landlord which is you ask any NYCHA resident they will tell you NYC is a slumlord. Best case would be for the landlords to coop their buildings but by that point the city would be destroyed. Best to pay your rent or move back to Iowa.

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nowyourdoingit t1_ism9847 wrote

They wouldn't arrest people for failure to pay rent. They would arrest people for civil disobedience and resisting arrest and a variety of other things. The powers at be in the US have been working since before the US was a country to put measures in place to limit the potential efficacy of rebellions and strikes. George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion...

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thetwelth2018 t1_ismb86d wrote

The 2020 protests confirm that the governments response would not be to jail large protests. Even the violent rioters were often not arrested or prosecuted. A nonviolent rent strike would receive a very favorable response from the government.

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