It&#x27;s got nothing to do with deceit or skimming, it&#x27;s <i>power</i>.  There is no fraud, it would be simply taking advantage of people beyond the <i>amount</i> of value that I would be interesting in providing.<p>Your allusion to a market that would correct the price doesn&#x27;t account for a market which no tenants can enter because none of them can afford the entrance (a 20% down payment).<p>They&#x27;ll get the benefit of housing no matter how much I would charge, but if I charge more than the value of the maintenance and accounting them I would be exploiting them, taking advantage of their inability to produce capital in the time it&#x27;s taken me to produce it.  And everyone else who is in the position I am could exploit them just as easily so the market doesn&#x27;t help there.<p>It&#x27;s like gas prices: if so many gas stations can compete, how come they prices aren&#x27;t driven down to nothing?  Because of the entrance cost to the market.  You can&#x27;t start a well and refinery, so you have to go to one of the established ones.<p>For luxury items like phones, art, fancy cars, etc., I don&#x27;t care about charging people a lot of money.  But for water, air, food, medical and housing, which people have no choice to acquire or consume I&#x27;m not going to gouge them.<p>This is not some rational choice about what a person or market theory can or should do, this is my personal code of ethics.