The government owns all the land and gives you a more-or-less yearly subscription to keep your land at a reasonable cost. If you are a landlord then you're just a middle-man who can profit.
Hmm. So in your view landlords are zamindars, there to extract value from the land and to give a little bit of it to their overlord?
I presume in your view, it would be best if governments cut the middle man and seized all land, but alas, they are too incompetent to extract any value from it. So like the EIC of old, they must rely on landlords.
That is an interesting view of private property. It certainly explains a lot about about modern rental problems.
Most leftists see landlords as people who unjustly make money without doing any work by taking money from their renters who do work. It's fairly common for leftists to describe them as parasites.
What they think should be done about that depends on exactly what type of leftist they are. However, most do not think that the land should be seized by the government. Many are fine with private ownership but feel that systems (such as the land value tax in this discussion) should be put into place to help ensure that the land's value is shared by society. On the other hand, anarchists might feel that land should be owned collectively by those living on it and managed by them democratically.
I think that most leftists would agree with you; realizing that landlords didn't actually do any labor to earn the money that they receive opens ones eyes to a lot of the problems in our current system of housing.
If you want to have a government at all, you must finance it somehow. Usage fees can go a long way, but you most likely also need some general taxation. Taxing land value is the least bad thing to tax, because the supply of land is fixed.
Yes, you can see this alternatively as the government renting out the land. And that's a fine view. Landlords pass on the land, but also put buildings on top. What you pay monthly for your apartment is partially for the land (which would go to the government, indirectly) and partially for the building and amenities and maintenance.
