Rent Control, by Mark Tulin – Friday Flash Fiction
— www.fridayflashfiction.com/poetry/rent-control-by-mark-tulin
Rent Control, by Mark Tulin
13/9/2019
Morgan and Doug owned an apartment building together.
Morgan wanted to squeeze the most money from his tenants while Doug had more compassion.
“Raise rent too high,” Doug said, “and people won’t be able to afford it,”
Morgan replied, “That’s too bad. Let them move out. We’ll replace them with a better class of people.”
“It’s not ethical, Morgan. You have to treat people fairly. You can’t take advantage of them.”
In two years, the housing market crashed. Morgan and Doug couldn’t pay their mortgage and went bankrupt. Morgan ended up homeless while Doug managed with help from his friends.
Crow On The Wire 
I love how this short story had such a great moral ending!
Thank you, Wendi. I wish real life would have moral endings. 🙂🙂
Amen Mark, amen!
That’s for sure!
You really are good at putting forth a message in a short span of words! In the space of a very few lines, you tell a story with a moral; however, the moral is not forced on the reader. Life plays out with the two characters simply showing their true selves; one is caring, and compassionate, the other is greedy, and self-centered. The world needs people like the first guy, people who value other people over the value of a dollar. In the end, the dollar really only goes so far; kindness is magnified one hundred times over. It cannot be measured, because we do not know how many hearts an act of kindness will touch. Great story!
Well said, Linda. Kindness and compassion are the two things we need the most and are in such short supply. Your point that kindness is magnified one hundred times over is very true. If we could just let go of our greed and selfish interests for just a minute we’d realize the importance of kindness and compassion. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙂
🙂 🙂 🙂
An smazing reaping! 🍵😎🍵
Thanks.
I loved this story! And I agree with the other commenters about the moral. It almost reads like a Proverb of sorts. Be good to your neighbors and receive help when needed or choose to be greedy and left out in the cold when you’re hurting. Very well put, Mark.
Yes, or simply put—Karma. 🙏🏻🙂