system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
That still sounds like landlords are at best bandaid solution over the real problem, which is a lack of access to capital, or perhaps even the necessity of capital to obtain housing.

I'd much rather just have a place to live, where I need to live, no strings attached, and I can't help but feel landlords can only exist by taking advantage of the fact that our economic system does not permit me that option.
gpt
It’s often worse than just not having access to capital. LLs, especially large corporations, buy up lots of housing stock, reducing availability and pushing up prices, which makes it harder for house-seekers to find properties to buy and makes it less affordable for them if they do. 

This leaves people stuck renting for longer, often at a significantly higher cost than monthly mortgage repayments would be, reducing their ability to save a deposit, further reducing their ability to afford their own home, all the while paying off the LL’s mortgage(s).

While tenants do get somewhere to live for their rent, they get nothing tangible at the end of it. While the LL often does little or nothing in order to ‘earn’ their rental income, they end up owning expensive asset paid for by their tenants. 

It’s rentier capitalism at its finest: passively generating wealth from the productivity of others while simultaneously denying them the opportunity to benefit from their own productivity.